


Beginning With The Start

by rojodiablo



Category: X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-02-18
Updated: 2013-04-08
Packaged: 2017-11-29 18:21:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 37,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/690036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rojodiablo/pseuds/rojodiablo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>We've all had those eureka moments as a result of a direct lightning strike. Right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Coup de Foudre

Whatever pre-conceptions you have about someone, whatever you may think about them from first impressions or first appearances, it is almost always wrong. Stereotypes are a burden and a blessing; they allow for categorisation and organisation of people into your inner filing system but they also give the wrong impression. How many French people actually wear a beret and cycle around on pre-WWII bicycles with garlic round their necks, bread in their basket and stripy jumpers on? Not many.

My name is Dean Henry Roberts. I’m 16 years old, I’m a pretty average kid and I live in a pretty average house. I go to an average school, I’m the middle child of 5 and I’m very good at keeping my head down and getting on with things.

It had been a particularly humid Friday during the summer holidays and my friend Alexandra -Lex for short- had convinced me to come to a party with her that evening at an older girl’s house. There was loads of alcohol and music and noise and people and it was all getting a little too much.

“OOOO! LOOK AT HIM! HE’S FIT!” Lex was shouting to me over the music.

“GOOD LUCK!” I shouted back whilst trying to keep my flailing limbs in some semblance of order. We were on the “dance floor”. I’d definitely had enough. “I’M GOING TO GET A DRINK!” I hollered into Lex’s ear, she just shrugged and started gyrating her way over to the guy she had deemed “FIT”.

I managed to push my way out of the living-room-come-dance-floor and made my way to the kitchen. It was quieter in there and there was also a fridge full of alcoholic beverages. I helped myself to one. I was searching around for a bottle opener when I got a tingling sensation on my shoulder which turned into a light tap. I was a little edgy around all these new people and I jumped like a scared animal and turned around rather quickly making a sound which can only be written as “whaduHUH” and in my surprise my newly acquired bottle almost went soaring through the air. I somehow managed to hold on to it despite the condensation making the surface somewhat slick.

Having gained full control of my drink I looked at the person who had caused my spinning. I was greeted by a grin that would have fit on any advert for sugar-free gum. I tried to take a step back to compensate for the closeness but met the resistance of the counter where I had been searching for the bottle opener. I felt a little uncomfortable so I slid myself sideways to regain some personal space. This elicited a response from the perfect smile.

“Oh...umm, I’m sorry about that, didn’t realise I was so close!” His voice sounded like he hadn’t grown up here, his accent was a lot more traditionally “English”, like mine. My parents had grown up in the Home Counties and my accent hid my West Country upbringing.

“Obviously not.” I muttered, I seemed to be unable to muster one of my usual witty responses, so I just left it at that. It could have been something to do with suddenly being able to see the face behind the smile. His face was creased into an apologetic smile, showing off those perfect teeth. Taking in his whole face: a strong jaw, a strong nose, thick eyebrows and those eyes.....dark and rich and deep. I couldn’t help it, I don’t even know why I did it, my eyes slid down past his broad shoulders taking in his thick arms which were on display because of his short-sleeved, tight fitting t-shirt which also showed off his two mountains of pec which led down towards his flat stomach on his triangle torso which seemed to point towards his trim waist and...I stopped there. Realising what I was doing I dragged my eyes back up to his face where I was met with a grin the size of a crescent moon.

“Should I turn around?” He asked. I must have looked confused because he carried on with, “so you can get a good look at that too?” He laughed. I’d started to blush, I could feel the redness creeping up from my navel, inching its way up my comparatively skinny torso and I felt my ears start to burn as my face filled up with heat. Nobody had made me blush, ever. I just never blushed. This got me rather angry. I dealt with this the only way I knew how and dived out of the room, bottle in hand.

I wormed my way back to Lex on the dance floor and dragged her sideways out of the mass of sweaty, flailing limbs. I got her into a quiet space under the stairs and she gave me a “this better be important” look.

“You know we tell each other everything?” I must have got my seriousness across with this because she immediately grabbed my hand.

“We’ve lived next door to each other since we were 2 and been best friends since then. There’s nothing I don’t know about you.” She was right. There was nothing I didn’t know about her either, we could finish each other’s sentences. I think it was expected we’d end up together some day. I loved spending time with her and I couldn’t live without her for more than a week but being “together” was never on the agenda, I guess I wasn't at that age yet?

“I just...I...” I didn’t even know where to start. What had just happened? A guy had made me blush...he was insinuating that I wanted to look at him or something which was stupid, why the hell would I want to do that? Well his smile was quite perfect and...what was I thinking? He was a guy! The ice-cold beverage in my hand was starting to make my hand ice-cold too, I looked around for somewhere to put it and noticed the guy had left the kitchen and was looking around. So I said “I...I’ll tell you later,” shook off Lex’s hand and bolted for the nearest door.

I ended up out on the night-darkened patio clutching my unopened drink and trying to breathe properly again. I had no idea what was going on but I really wasn’t happy. What was I even doing? Some guy taps me on the shoulder and I flip out. Maybe it was the alcohol, maybe 18 was the legal age for a reason.

I heard movement behind me and there he was, stood next to a begonia and looking amused.

He just smiled again, which only served to fuel my anger. He kept smiling and pulled a bottle opener out of the left pocket of his loose jeans. Oh God. I was such an idiot. What actually was my problem? He was trying to give me a bottle opener and I end up running through a party-filled house trying to escape him. I started to blush again and thanked the heavens that the twilight sky had large storm-clouds obscuring the moonlight. I turned my back to the door spilling light out into the night so he couldn’t see my reddening face.

He offered me the bottle opener and I took it and opened my still-cold beverage. I shoved the bottle opener back towards him rather unceremoniously and took an overlarge swig of my drink as I felt the redness receding back down my face.

He stuck his hand out “Hi, I’m Tom.” In keeping with my monosyllabic nature this evening I said “Dean” and extended my hand into his. I’d done it enough times, it was just another handshake, but something had me a little shaken and I watched as I moved my hand rather tentatively towards his. Just as our hands were about to meet I felt a tingling again and before I could pull my hand back in shock he’d grabbed it and the sensation died almost immediately, leaving only a memory.

I looked back up into his face and he was smiling broadly at me. I hadn’t realised it was so cold out and it suddenly hit me and I shivered. Tom seemed to jump and pulled his hand out of mine and looked at his weirdly as he massaged it. I hadn’t felt anything but he looked like he’d been bitten or something. He gave me a sideways look but seemed to brush whatever he was thinking aside and said “Shall we go back in, you look cold.” I had to admit, only wearing a fitted tee and a pair of black jeans meant I was feeling rather goose pimpled. There was a wind picking up as well and it felt like it was going to rain.

We walked back in and drifted off in our own directions after a brief “Catch you later then” from Tom. I thought about telling Lex but I decided it could wait, especially as she’d just got close enough to the guy she had cited earlier and seemed to have got his attention.

* * *

About an hour later I found myself looking out the window having still not told Lex about what happened. It had started raining about half an hour ago and it was getting to be quite heavy. I could feel a storm brewing. I know that sounds corny but I really could. The night had truly set in and the sky was completely dark, but to me the storm clouds seemed bright with energy.

The sky lit up with sheet lightning and I could not only see but feel the huge static discharge directly above the house. The almost immediate roar of thunder was deafening and I swear the house actually shook. People rushed to watch the free light show in the night sky, and I got forced away from the window. It started to rain on the skylight above the kitchen. It was loud. I wandered back towards the kitchen searching for another drink and came across some girls my age who had found the keys to the back door and were planning on going outside to “get a better view”. Get absolutely soaked was more like it. They were more than a little intoxicated so it was kind of understandable.

A moment later I saw and felt the second bolt of lightning that evening, but this time it was a fork, which grounded about two hundred metres down the garden somewhere. The crack and roar as the air was superheated to 30 000+ degrees left my ears ringing. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea for those girls to go outside.

“Hey, girls, you’ll get soaked out there!”

“Nah we’ll be fine!” One of them giggled, trying not to trip over her feet. Another one of them piped up with “We like the rain!”

“You don’t want to ruin those outfits do you?” I was trying to find a good enough excuse.

“It’ll be fiiiiiiiiiine! They’ll need a wash after tonight anyway!” They all burst out laughing. It really wasn’t that funny.

“Look guys, it’s a storm out there, it could be dangerous.” I was really scraping the barrel for excuses now, and I realised I’d said the wrong thing only after I’d said it. That’s a talent of mine.

They all screamed and squawked and one of them managed to break through the screeching with “OH! So we need a big strong boy to hold our hands do we?” She made a pantomime of looking around. “Well I don’t see one! Come on girls!”

With that they began piling outside and shut the door behind them. I threw up my hands in frustration and went over and opened the door and saw them tripping their way up the stone steps onto the raised garden. I tried shouting at them to come back in but if they’d even heard me above the storm noise they weren’t paying any attention. The wind really was howling and the small amount of rain that was getting past the small porch was freezing cold and stung where it hit my bare arms.

There really was no other option. I stepped out into the storm to drag them back in before they hurt themselves. I was soaked through within seconds of stepping out. I shivered suddenly at the biting cold but forced it back and tried to see through the rain stinging my eyes. I groaned. They had sat down on the grass, I was never going to get them back inside like this. I looked over to the window where it seemed everyone else was watching with mixed levels of amusement and confusion. Turning back to the girls I began walking up the stone steps towards them. That’s when I felt something bad happening. The static charge a mile or so above me had reached a critical level.

I felt the charge building to a huge release and something went “click” in my subconscious, like something had fallen into place. Already at the top of the steps I closed my eyes and my hands reached skywards of their own accord and a single blue spark leapt between them. Despite having my eyes closed I could still see the electrical charge between my hands and in the sky, I could still feel it. The bolt between my hands seemed to solidify there for a split second and then it leapt skywards where it was greeted by a “feeler bolt”: a channel for the main discharge to travel down. As the two bolts met the millions of volts from the main discharge had their path to Earth and the return stroke from me triggered it. The flash that ensued would have blinded me had my eyes not been closed. I could still see the energy joining despite having my eyes firmly shut, I could feel where they connected and I could feel the raw power flowing into me.

As the lightning struck I took all the energy into myself, letting none stray outside of me. There were another 6 discharges down the decaying channel and it felt like my whole body was on fire, it felt like I was filling up with the power of the lightning. I could feel it surging into me. The power filling me made me aware of every single electron, every single current, rushing into me and filling me up.

It was over in seconds and I was still stood there. As far as I could tell I was still whole and wasn’t just a smoking crater. I opened my eyes and was rewarded by a raindrop in my eye. This snapped me back to the reality of 5, suddenly very sober looking, girls staring at me with wide eyes.

I managed a weak smile and heard a familiar accent shouting at me from the doorway “Dean! You o.k? Dean!” There was a short pause and some hurried footsteps, “DEAN!!!”

I turned to see him stood at the base of the steps, concern etched onto his soft, drenched features but didn’t really have time to ponder this as I began to topple towards him. My vision turned black as I felt a tingle all over my front from the waist up and I landed on something soft.


	2. White Walls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I wonder if this is what hangovers feel like?

I woke up. I wasn’t quite sure where I was, how I got there or why I was there but the fact remained that I was “there”. I decided to take stock: I was here, wherever here was, and I felt like I was lying down. It was a little dark...oh no wait, I still had my eyes shut. I opened them. This brought a new sensation to my head: pain, lots of it. This distressed me a little and I must have made distressed sounds because there was soon some...thing in front of my face. I tried to ignore the blinding light and concentrate on the thing in front of me. I kept wanting to sneeze. The thing slowly resolved itself into something else which twigged a neurone in my head - “face” I thought, not exactly IQ 180 but we’re getting there.

The face asked “Are you o.k Dean? Can you hear me?” It was a nice voice, classic and refined. This twigged another neurone and this time I thought “Tom”. Apparently I’d also said it because the face replied “That’s me!” And a shiny grin assaulted my eyes with its brightness. I gave up and closed my eyes to shut off the pain. It almost worked.

Despite having my eyes closed I could still see an outline of Tom’s face on the back of my eyelids. It didn’t go away...this was more than an outline, it was a whole picture. And it was moving, changing. I could see all the little electrical impulses as his neurones fired across his nerve pathways and the constant pulses travelling through his optical nerves and up his spinal column towards the electrical maelstrom of his brain. I could even see the voltage coursing through the offending light behind his head. My focus was drawn back to the blue-white outline of Tom’s face.

I was surprised when he moved in closer, his brow creasing in electrical concern. “Are you o.k Dean? Are the lights too bright? Should I turn some off?” I entertained the thought for a while evaluating the pros and cons of the situation. In the end I decided that having the lights off would be a better option, the pain from only moments before had still not receded fully and I didn’t want a reminder any time soon.

“Yeah, please, turn them off they’re blinding.” I watched through my eyelids as he turned his head this way and that, I wondered why he didn’t move over to the light switch. I watched the energy from the circuits suddenly recede back down the wires and I noticed the sudden dip in light from behind my eyelids. I opened my eyes and stared at him in wonderment in the half light from the dimming afternoon sky outside – had he just done that? What had he just done? And how?

I opened my eyes and felt puzzled. He seemed to ignore my glazed expression and said “So how are you feeling? That was a lightning bolt that hit you back there!” he had the beginnings of a smirk on his features. Another thought hit me: what had I done, and how?

He definitely noticed my confusion this time and said “You do remember what happened last night don’t you?” I nodded in dazed recollection, vividly remembering the storm, the bolts, the feeling of sensory overload and blacking out only to land on...oh God! I’d fallen right into him like a lump of useless rubber! I decided to revert to one of my favourite tactics: changing the subject.

“I’m fine, I’m fine. But I still don’t know where I am, care to tell me?”

“Oh right, you’re at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital for Neurology.” He seemed to be waiting for something. He kept looking at his watch and the doorway. “I expect your parents are on their way, the hospital said they’d notified them that you’re here.” OH GOD! Not my parents! ANYTHING but my parents! This was it; I was actually going to die. I had a thought: “Why am I at a brain hospital?” I asked.

“Oh,” was his immediate response, “they wanted to check the electrical signals in your brain weren’t all messed up because of the shock, which of course they aren’t, but you knew they wouldn’t be.” His smirk came back again. This was really starting to confuse me, knowing what the hell was going on would probably have helped considerably but my thoughts felt they’d been juggled around by the lightning and were refusing to sit still long enough for me to concentrate on them. I was beginning to get a little aggravated, my usually-organised brain had suddenly become incapable of thinking of more than one thing at once. I didn’t like my lack of mental control. I sat up feeling rather indignant.

“Look,” I said, “I’ve just been electrocuted, I’m disorientated, I’m seeing electricity being forced out of circuits and I’m in a dark hospital room with someone I met at a party!” I paused and thought for a moment. “And I’m hungry! What the hell is going on?” I must have sounded as angry as I felt because Tom suddenly looked a little hurt but he brought his chair in closer to my bed. I tried to sit up and Tom reached behind me and put my pillows up behind my back for me to lean against. I shuffled back up against them still feeling more than a little ruffled, feeling an ever so slight tingle on the back of my arms as he pulled his hands away.

He looked into my face as if searching for some kind of clue but he seemed to give up and looked down at his hands in his lap. “This is gonna be a little weird for you, but seeing as you haven’t figured it out I’m just gonna have to tell you.” I braced myself for impact, what had happened? I could still feel all my extremities, they weren’t gonna have to amputate something were they?

He searched me again with those deep, soulful brown eyes and I wondered what he was looking for. He didn’t seem to find whatever it was and returned his eyes to a neutral point on the edge of my bed. He breathed a little and I could swear I could see little wheels turning in his head. I blinked, and for a moment I actually could. And idea started to form in my head. He took in a breath and the door handle rattled causing us both to jump a little and look towards the door. The door opened and Lex walked in shutting it behind her.

She saw me sat up in bed and tears sprang into her eyes as she launched herself across the room at me and landed astride me on my bed. She pulled me into a death-grip hug and squeezed all the air out of my lungs. I was gasping a little but I was glad to see her and she was obviously glad to see me. I felt like I was about to black out again but she pulled back and laughed at me.

“You had us all so worried! You never do stupid things like that and all of a sudden you pull a bolt of lightning down on your head! Why didn’t you tell me you were a mutant?!” Tom coughed rather loudly at this and Lex looked at him realising what she had just said and seeing the earnest look in his eyes. “Oh” she looked at her hands which had fallen from around my neck to somewhere on my stomach. “You didn’t know yet did you?” she looked up at me with fresh water in her eyes and shot Tom a “you were supposed to tell him” look. I shook my head with a completely blank expression on my face.

She clambered off me to the other side of the bed and I realised she was wearing the same clothes she had been wearing at the party last night. “How long was I asleep?” I asked.

Tom looked at his watch. “About...17 hours.” He was in the same clothes he was wearing last night aswell, that tight-fitting tee showing off his biceps as he rested his elbows on his knees causing them to bulge slightly. What was I doing? I was fixating on the size of his arms when I should have been thinking about the implications of being struck by lightning, being unconscious for 17 hours and being a mutant. Idiot.

I wasn’t really sure what to say, I was a little overwhelmed so I just said “O.K.” Quite unoriginal I know but what does one say in such situations? I mean I knew about mutants from the news and from the gossip around school but it didn’t really bother me, they were just another minority which was being oppressed by over-zealous, over-protective and over-religious idiots who always have to be right. So I was in a minority. Was it sick that that gave me a thrill? Maybe I wouldn’t just be the kid who kept his head down and faded into the background any more, maybe I’d actually have a name as opposed to ‘one of the Roberts kids...yanno, the middle one’.

“That’s cool.” I said to emphasise my okay-ness with the situation. Tom looked at me like I’d just kicked a two year old in the face for offering me a cookie.

“You’re O.K with that? Really? Wow! You’re really o.k with that? Wow!” He seemed genuinely surprised. Lex just smiled, she knew me better than I knew myself and was just glad that I had taken it so well.

“However, I’m still highly confused.”

“Oh right...sure. What’s confusing you?”

“Everything?” I said, rather exasperated.

“Well...as far as I can tell you did something with the electricity of the bolt. I think you...well I think that basically you...you took the electrical energy of the bolt into yourself.” That helped, a little.

“So I’m what? A human battery?” I just had to try and be funny didn’t I.

“No.” said Tom, rather abruptly, “Well, yes, but I’m sure it’s more than that.” He seemed almost defiant.

Something else clicked into place. “Wait a minute...you’re a mutant too?” What a dumb question, I’d just watched him push the electricity out of a circuit and he all but admitted it to me only a second ago.

“Yep.” He smiled sheepishly. There was some noise outside the door. Before it had even opened Tom said “Sounds like Dan & Jeff are here.” I didn’t know what that meant but before I had time to ask the door had opened and two very different people stepped in together, very definitely together and even though they weren’t holding hands it looked like they were. They looked like a couple, one which was very much in love.

“Man it’s hot out, I still can’t believe how hot summers can be over here!” It was the bigger guy who had spoken as he was closing my frosted glass-panel door. He had a perfect smile when he’d turned to face me. I must have been staring because he said “What? Is there something in my teeth?” and started checking his teeth with his tongue.

The other guy laughed, well he chuckled. “Jeff, I don’t think it’s the teeth.” There must have been some kind of ‘look’ passed between the two of them because a look of recognition dawned on Jeff’s face. “Oh!” he exclaimed, “I think I’m getting better at this.” Lord alone knows what he was on about, so I waited for an explanation of these two people in my hospital room.

“It’s a little dark in here isn’t it?” The other guy inquired. “I’m Dan by the way, and this is my clueless husband Jeff in case you didn’t get that.” Maybe it was true what all those American sitcoms say ‘All the good ones are either married or gay’. It was both in this case. I shook the hand offered to me by Jeff and nodded towards Dan who opted to stand near the foot of my bed. “Do you mind?” he said, gesturing to the lights. I just shrugged. Dan flicked a finger on his left hand and the lights came back on, but a lot lower than should have been allowed considering the absence of a dimmer switch. I could see that something was restricting the flow of the circuit and I looked at Dan, who just shrugged.

The idea I’d started to form earlier was beginning to develop tentacles.

There was a short silence where Dan seemed to be looking at me with a slightly quizzical expression I felt a slight tingle on the back of my neck for just a second which made me shiver involuntarily and then Dan smiled and looked at Tom. “A human battery eh?” he said. Tom looked at me and shrugged with a slightly apologetic grin.

“He called a lightning bolt down onto himself to stop it from hitting a bunch of girls at a party.” Tom stated rather matter-of-factly. This caused Jeff to smirk at Dan.

“Someone after your own heart?” Jeff asked.

“Too bad someone already has it.” Dan said right back, giving Jeff a playful grin.

“Would you two cut it out? You’re here for a reason remember?” A helpful interjection from Tom.

Dan and Jeff managed to tear their eyes away and Dan said “We’ve come to ask you something. Now you’ve got every right to say no but we’re really hoping you’ll say yes.” I just nodded. Jeff took over the speaking “Okay, here’s the deal,” he sat down on a chair on the opposite side of my bed from Tom and rested his head in his hands and his elbows on the side of my bed. “You know you’re a mutant.” I nodded. “We know you’re a mutant.” I nodded again. “Good, so have you ever heard of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters?” I shook my head this time.

“Well it’s a school in upstate New York, run by Professor Charles Xavier.” I’d heard that name before. “He owns and runs this school for Gifted Youngsters worldwide.” I was still failing to see how I fit in here so Dan took over.

“The nickname some people have given to Xavier’s School is ‘Mutant High’,” Dan clarified. Something else clicked into place and I could feel what was coming, “Tom rang me last night after he’d got you to the hospital and told me about what happened. We're here to extend you an invitation to join the school.” I almost choked on my own breath. What was going on? I’d just been asked to go to New York to study at ‘Mutant High’! Perhaps I was still blacked out, perhaps I got blind drunk without noticing and was led on the floor somewhere having really lucid dreams. I mean...me! A mutant! But…New York, being away from my parents and my brothers!

And then the reality hit me. New York. It was a whole ocean away. Not only would my parents not be able to afford the flight and the school fees they would be so totally against me going to a mutant school that there wasn’t even any point in asking them to even consider paying. Not to mention all the complications of moving to a different country for an extended time period. Something of my despair must have shown because Dan said “Of course the professor or I would be willing to pay for flights. And of course tuition for a truly ‘Gifted’ youngster would be entirely free.”

Even if all the complicated arrangements could be made for studying away from my homeland my parents would still never allow it. DAMMIT. I really wanted this and I just knew they’d try and hold me back. They always had, but that’s what comes from being the middle child in a family of five, you tend to get overlooked to the point of neglect. I only ever got told what NOT to do (usually after I’d done it), I never got encouraged or pushed, they may as well have told me to just fade quietly into the background because that’s invariably what I ended up doing.

“I can’t.” I felt awful having to say it, but it could never and would never happen no matter how much I wanted it to. “There’s just no way my parents would let me go. They want me to stay home and look after my little sisters and get on in school and stuff.”

“Well we don’t want to be causing family rifts,” Jeff seemed genuinely concerned, “but it might be best for you if you went to Xavier’s for just a few years, to get your powers under control. Hell we don’t even know what they are yet, don’t you want to know what you can do?”

“YES! I do! I really do, but my parents...I really can’t ever see them coming round to the idea. This really sucks...” I trailed off into silence.

Dan broke the silence “You know, you could tell them it’s a prep school which head-hunted you for your....mathematical skills?”

“They’d never believe that, I’m crap at maths.”

“Well what ARE you good at?” Tom was trying to help, how cute. Since when did I call other guys cute?

I wracked my brains “Nothing really.”

“Oh come on, a guy like you, gotta be good at something!” Tom said. I wondered what he meant by that.

“I really have no academic skills whatsoever.” I was beginning to see just how pathetic I was.

“Well what do you do outside of school? Do you do anything Extra-Curricular?” apparently Tom refused to believe I was as untalented as I had previously stated.

“Well...I’m on school Stage Crew, does that count?” I ventured.

“Perfect!” said Dan, “The school has a fully functioning amateur dramatics theatre and a Theatre Studies course. You’re being offered a scholarship for theatrical arts.”

“Umm...I don’t think that’s too realistic. I mean, doesn’t it seem a little farfetched to you?” I said like a true pessimist.

“As long as you can make your parents believe it, then that’s completely academic, no pun intended.” Tom couldn’t resist a little smirk at his own ‘witty’ comment.

“This is going to be a really weird weekend.” I said shaking my head. We talked a little more about Xavier’s and the arrangements for plane tickets and such and then Dan & Jeff said goodbye and left.

Lex followed them out muttering something about wanting to ask Dan & Jeff some questions and having to ring her parents again.

This left me and Tom alone in my room. I was suddenly very self-conscious, even more than I usually am, and tried to hide myself from his eyes, which seemed to look straight into my head. We talked for about half an hour about most things with me constantly avoiding his gaze. He was starting at Xavier’s this year too but he’d discovered his powers in the safety of his own home a few months ago. His mother had a mutant in the family and had instantly rung the school in a frantic attempt to find a “cure” for Tom’s sudden causing of electrical malfunctions all over the house. Dan & Jeff had turned up two hours after putting the phone down and they had shown Tom how to keep his powers in control for a couple of months until he could get to Xavier’s at the start of the new school year for some proper teaching. It had taken a couple of days but at least the microwave stayed on long enough for him to make baked beans on toast.

There was a knock on the door. It wasn’t Lex, it was Tom’s mum. “Hello Thomas dear,” she noticed me sat up in the bed, “ah I see you’re back with us in the land of the living. Dean isn’t it?” She came over to me and gave me a warm ‘mum’ hug. You know the kind, only mum’s can give them and they’re so full of warmth they seem to fill you up from the inside. “It’s nice to see you up, you hardly moved all day, Thomas was ever so worried.” I stole a quick glance at Tom, who was looking at his hands again, which hid his face but I could still see his ears which were burning bright red.

“Urm...” was about all I could muster. I managed to hold a thought long enough to concentrate on it, “I thought the hospital had rung my parents, and there’s no shouting so I’m guessing they’re not here?”

“Ah yes well...” she didn’t seem to be able to look me in the eye, “The hospital told them that you were here and I asked to speak to them, your mother said that she was with your older brother...I think it was James...he’s in a band and they were playing at the local pub last night. Your mother seemed rather angry that you’d spoilt her evening and when I told her you’d be discharged on Sunday morning she said that...” she swallowed a lump in her throat “...that you could get home yourself.” She was right though, I only lived 25 minutes walk from the hospital and Lex lived right next-door so I could easily get home with her if I couldn’t walk, her parents were always happy to give me and Lex lifts to places.

“That sounds like my mum.” I was resigned to my treatment by her and I’d come to accept it as normal, it didn’t really bother me that she didn’t care. She never did so I hardly felt the comparatively mild reminder of how much she valued me as it washed over my mental wall I’d built up around my emotions.

Tom’s mum seemed to reach and internal decision, she put on a smile and gave me a warm glance. This was a mum who tried hard. Sometimes that’s a little scary, but when the situation is bleak there’s nothing like a mum who tries hard to keep you all pushing forward. This was definitely a situation on the verge of bleakness. She seemed to have a brainwave. “You’ll be flying over to New York for the start of term, yes?” I nodded at this. “Well I’ll book three tickets instead shall I? Professor Xavier did promise to reimburse us. That means Tom, you and I can fly out together!”

Tom gave me a huge smile and I knew I couldn’t say no, what would have been the point, it’s not like she was offering to pay for them. 

I accepted with only a token resistance and before she left she gave me a card with her address and contact numbers on “just in case”. There wasn’t really much need for it but I put it in the pocket of my jeans which were in the nightstand by the bed.

Tom left with her to say goodbye outside the door and have a quick talk with her. Tom came back in a minute later and said that his mum had said he could stay overnight, he also said he’d need to because if he got more than 10 metres or so away he probably wouldn’t be able to keep my powers in check for me.

It turns out that my act of subconscious idiocy had awakened my powers with a jolt, excuse the pun. Without Tom there forcing all the random electrical charges I was producing back into my body I would have probably melted all the wires that were plugged into me and destroyed the monitors that I was hooked up to. I laughed at this at first but he was deadly serious. He said that his powers had been whilst he was using the microwave, every time he got near it the thing would lose its power and turn off and the clock would reset itself. After that every time he got near his computer or the central heating or anything at all with an electrical current running through it, it would just switch off and not turn on again until he got some distance away.

When his mother had noticed she went to feel his forehead and her watch battery had died. This was when she had thought about calling a doctor or somebody but then had been inspired by what had happened two years ago when she’d gone to stay with her cousin Cassandra, so she had called Xavier's instead. After spending a few days learning control with Dan it only took Tom a week or so of late rising on account of the alarm being switched off for him to learn how to do it in his sleep.

I asked him to try and teach me how to “regulate” myself, but I couldn’t find the concentration so I settled for letting him “regulate” me, as he put it. We talked for a long time, I actually lost track of how long we’d be talking for until Tom yawned. Because I hadn’t woken up until late afternoon, almost evening, I wasn’t tired. I looked at the clock. It was coming up half 11.

“Can you regulate me when you’re asleep?” I was worried he’d have to stay up all night looking after me like some invalid.

“I’ve been thinking about that.” His features seemed to knot up in concentration. “I can regulate myself asleep easily but someone else might be difficult but then I remembered that odd feeling before I touched you. A sort of tingling.” Oh boy I knew that feeling, it felt weird. “I think it’s because of my internal electricity barrier and when I touch you, you get absorbed into that barrier so the tingling stops.” I could see where this was going. “So maybe if we were touching whilst we slept then my regulation would apply to you too?”

“So we’ll have to sleep together?” That sounded so...so not normal saying that to a guy.

“Don’t be daft, all it’ll take is a little bit of touching bare skin. We could just hold hands or something?” It still sounded like it would be weird. I realised just then that we were staring into each other’s eyes and before I could wonder why I kept ending up looking at him the door swung open again admitting a fuming Lex. She really was a sight to behold when she was angry.

“Stupid parents! They won’t let me stay with you overnight, dad’s already on his way. Mum says he’ll bring me back to pick you up at 9 tomorrow morning but she’s insistent you get a good night’s sleep and she has this idea that I’ll keep you up half the night talking if I stay!” I couldn’t resist a giggle which I stifled and a directed a significant look towards Tom. “What’s so funny?!” She really was a sight when angry and I didn’t have enough energy to weather the storm so I brushed it off.

“So when will your dad get here?”

“Mum says he left 10 minutes ago so he’s probably outside waiting.” She leaned down and gave me a quick peck on the cheek and picked up her bag from by my bed and said goodbye to Tom and left with her phone going off in her pocket. I heard her pick it up and holler “I’m on my way O.K!” from out in the corridor.

This left me and Tom alone and I suddenly couldn’t stifle a yawn. Tom chuckled in his quintessential English tenor and I felt the tingle on my side as he pushed my pillows back down so I could sleep on them. Before I could argue he had put my arm down by my side and had laced the fingers of his left hand through my right. I couldn’t help but notice how warm his hands were.

“You’re obviously tired,” he said “so just close your eyes and I’ll see you in the morning.” I almost laughed at his protective tones but my laugh caught in my throat when I realised how nice it felt to know I’d see him in the morning.

I must have fallen asleep because I woke up again to a completely dark room except for the light through the glass pane in the door. I could feel Tom’s hand still laced in mine but when I looked down he had his head rested on my stomach and he was smiling to himself in his sleep. His right arm was thrown protectively over my waist and I wanted to move my hand up and put it in his dark brown hair, it looked so soft and so warm like the rest of him.

I didn’t even realise what it was I was thinking and drifted back into a deep sleep and dreams of New York, storm filled skies and Tom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still posting one chapter a week to keep up with the editing.
> 
> Enjoy!


	3. The Return

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Who even likes hospitals anyway? Time to go home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still posting one chapter a week to keep up with editing.
> 
> Enjoy!

I woke up to the white ceiling of my hospital room. My ability to wake up and go from 0 to 60 in half a second had returned and I sat straight up in bed and looked around for Tom and checked the clock. It was 5 to 9. I was still wearing the white and blue hospital gown and needed to get into my clothes and get home. Tom was out of my view range but he had to be nearby as I was still plugged into various machines which were still functioning.

I reached over to my nightstand to grab my clothes and only managed to loosen one of the various wires attached to me. I carefully manoeuvred myself into a position where I could get to my clothes without removing my wires and retrieved my jeans and t-shirt from the drawer. I managed to slip my jeans on under my hospital gown, thankfully they’d left my boxer-briefs on.

There was knock on the door and a female nurse walked in, “In a hurry? Well you can’t leave still plugged in can you?”

A laughed nervously and she offered me a warm smile “I don’t suppose I can.”

“Well I’ll take them out then,” she said as she picked up the chart on the end of my bed, “seeing as you’re due for release in two minutes.” I gave her a friendly smile and wondered where Tom was. She started turning off the various monitors and disconnecting me from them. I peeked through the open door in attempt to look for Tom.

“Oh, if you’re looking for your boyfriend he’s just on the phone in the corridor.” I froze.

“He...He’s not my boyfriend.” I was stupefied that she could think that.

“Oh...sorry I just saw you two asleep together this morning when I started my rounds and...I just assumed.” She tried an apologetic smile and pulled out another wire.

“Well he’s not my boyfriend o.k?” she pulled out the last remaining wire and jumped out of the bed pulling my gown off over my head. Tom chose that exact moment to walk in and I suddenly felt very naked under his gaze. I noticed him look me over and span round so fast so he couldn’t see my bare chest that I nearly cracked my knee on my nightstand. I could still feel his gaze on me so I bent over to get my t-shirt out of the top drawer and pulled it on over my head so fast I nearly took my ears off.

“You’ll have to sign out before you leave.”

“Where?”

“Just go to the ward entrance and ask the duty nurse for your release form and give her your chart. Sign the form and your done.” She offered me the chart on my way past and I snatched it from her rather rudely and pushed my way out the door past Tom.

He caught up with me a second later and said “A bit of sleep did you good; I don’t need to regulate you any more, just try not to touch anything too conductive and you should be fine.”

“Yeah, thanks, whatever.” I knew it was rude but I didn’t care.

“What’s up?” I felt the tingling build as he reached for my shoulder but I turned to face him and stopped.

“Nothing o.k?” I lowered my voice a little “Nothing...” I realised my fists were clenched and let them relax. “I have to get home.”

I turned and continued down to the desk by the ward entrance and did as the nurse had instructed me. I signed my form and was just walking out the double swing doors when Tom said “Call me soon, o.k?” Oh he’d just love that.

I didn’t reply to him and set my sight on the lifts. I pressed the “Call” button and stepped straight into the empty Lift and faced the corridor previously behind me. Tom rounded the corner at the end and saw me in the lift and called out to me and started running down the near-deserted corridor. I began hammering on the “Ground” button feverishly, not even looking up towards Tom. The doors started closing and I could still hear him shouting my name and his trainers slapping on the linoleum tiled floor but I just looked at my feet and as the doors closed and the lift started to move I let out a breath I didn’t realise I’d been holding in.

I almost bolted out of the lift on the ground floor, it was lucky the hospital was so deserted at this time in the morning, and I went straight out the front automatic doors. I began walking fast, pushing myself to go faster, to keep going. I was running away and I knew it but right then I didn’t care, I was too afraid of what was behind me.

I couldn’t, I just couldn’t be gay. What was that nurse talking about? How could me and him look like we were together, he was much better looking for a start. NO! No...I...I didn’t think that...I didn’t think at all. I just sat quietly in the background until someone told me to get up and leave, I didn’t want to think, I didn’t need to think. I needed to stop thinking. I needed to forget about all this.

A mutant! An actual mutant! The ones you hear about on the news blowing up power stations and having fights in the street and plotting against world governments. This was too much. I didn’t want to be a mutant. What if I hurt someone? What if it was my little sisters? What if they hated me? My mum was bound to hate me because she already did, but I couldn’t bear the thought that my sisters or my dad would hate me, we’d always looked out for each other.

I was broken from my thought when I realised I’d stopped. I was stood outside my front door and was staring at it. I was scared. I was scared as hell. I was supposed to convince my parents to let me go to a school in New York to learn how to control my mutant powers under the pretence of being a techie for a drama school. I didn’t know if I could lie that badly to them, I’d been brought up honest and hadn’t lied about many things, only to get me out of trouble, just little white lies.

I wanted to tell my sisters the truth anyway. They were twins and had a special bond with each other but they’d always been willing to share it with me. My older brothers were just less than a year apart in age and also in the same year at school and may as well have been twins because they did everything together and never with me, they didn’t look like peas in a pod but you could still tell they were brothers. I’d never seen eye-to-eye with them. They both looked like mum. My sisters looked identical to each other and were like female versions of their father. I definitely had mum’s mentality but we bore no physical resemblance, except for our hair: Dead straight and lots of it in a dark shade of blonde. My green eyes were hers as well.

I took a breath and fished my keys out of my pocket, letting myself in. The second I opened the door there was movement upstairs and in the front room. My sisters faces were radiating concern when they appeared at the top of the stairs, I smiled at them but they didn’t smile back and they didn’t come down the stairs either. My mum walked out of the front room and my oldest brother -James- leered around the door at me.

I looked at my feet rather than facing up to my mum, I wasn’t sure I was ready for her wrath yet.

“What the hell do you think you’re playing at Dean? Going to parties without telling me!” I’d snuck out when she’d gone to see James playing with his band at the local pub. “Getting drunk and ending up in hospital! What do you think you’re playing at, there are no excuses for this sort of behaviour and I’m very disappointed at you.” She folded her arms triumphantly and stood looming over me like the Angel of Death.

“I’m sorry mum.” I said as I looked up into her eyes. “I didn’t mean anything to happen. How did you know I got drunk?”

“I didn’t!” Another triumphant look. “But you just admitted it so I obviously guessed right.” Obviously.

“I’m sorry.” I looked at the floor again.

“Well good, because you should be. You completely ruined James’ performance for me, completely spoilt my enjoyment.” She signed somewhat resignedly and said “The milk and cereals are still out, go and eat something.” Even that was an order.

I went into the kitchen to find my dad sat at the kitchen table sipping his cup of tea. “Ah Dean, I made you a cup of tea.” My favourite cup was in my place at the table filled with still steaming tea. I sat down and took a sip. It was nice and milky with no sugar. Just how I like it. I smiled at my dad and thanked him for the tea, pouring myself a bowl of cereal. My sisters came in and sat down either side of me in their usual seats.

“Mum was really angry.” That was Hannah, the younger of the two. “She said she was going to beat you so hard you couldn’t sit down for a week. She nearly came to the hospital yesterday just to shout at you but dad stopped her.” I smiled my thanks at him and he nodded. He always looked out for me when I needed it.

“I thought she was actually going to attack you the second you walked in.” That was Alice, continuing Hannah’s train of thought. They finished each other’s sentences sometimes. “I’m glad you’re o.k. It’s been weird since Lex came home yesterday, she didn’t even come over and tell us how you were.” That was weird, Lex got on with my sisters almost as well as I did. And our gardens didn’t even have a fence between them near the bottom of the garden any more, we trampled the flimsy wire fence into the ground and eventually removed it years ago. There was definitely something up.

“Their whole family stopped talking to us since then. We were worrying about you over cups of tea and then they left when her dad was on the phone and Philip saw Lex come home and they haven’t even been round.” I was starting to worry that Lex had told them why I was in the hospital. She wouldn’t have done that. She might have told her only sibling, her sister Rachel, but she wouldn’t tell her parents...would she? Maybe she did it by accident or they forced it out of her or something. After all, the only thing scarier than Lex in a rage was her mother in high temper.

My cereal was untouched. What if Lex’s parents told mine...mum would flip, she would go crazy. She would actually explode with anger. I had to get out, I had to leave. I stood up and started out the kitchen door.

“What? Where are you going?” I turned around to see a look of surprise on three faces.

“I...I don’t know...” and turned and ran up the stairs to the room I shared with James and Philip. I grabbed my suitcase with wheels on and opened it on my bed. What did I need to rough it for 2 weeks before getting to school? I grabbed the essentials: wallet, keys...but what about clothes. When I reached for the metal handle of the wardrobe however, an actinic blue spark several inches long leapt from the tip of my finger and grounded in the metal. I heard a sharp intake of breath from the doorway.

Phil was stood half in the room, half out with his mouth wide open. I swore at myself loudly for not thinking and started thinking about what I was going to say to Phil. I didn’t have a chance to think because he bolted down the stairs. I was going to go after him but how would I stop him? What could I even say?

Instead I grabbed the wardrobe handle ignoring a second spark and pulled it open and grabbed my two other good pairs of jeans and a coat. I opened my chest of drawers and grabbed some t-shirts and two handfuls of underwear and socks. I was just shoving them into the open suitcase when Hannah appeared at my door and said “What was....what are you doing?” She looked so hurt and she came towards me but I couldn’t let her near me. I didn’t want to hurt her.

“I’m sorry Han, I really am.” I lurched away as she tried to touch me again. “I’m really sorry...”

“Dean just tell me what’s bothering you!” This time I wasn’t ready and her hand got within 5 centimetres of me before a spark leapt off my chest and landed on the index finger of her left hand. She pulled her hand back with the shock and rubbed it.

“I’m sorry.” I was looking at my shoes and didn’t notice as my eyes clouded and tears started dropping from my eyes towards the carpeted floor. “I’m so sorry...”

My mum burst into the room throwing the door back against my bed. Hannah turned around to mum just in time to be shoved out of the way. “Lex’s parents are downstairs! Do you know why?” I could hazard a guess by the tone in her voice but I shook my head anyway. “No I didn’t think you would, stupid boy.” She paused for effect. “Well? Are you going to tell us? Were you even planning to tell us we’re harbouring a mutant?” Hannah squeaked and I heard Phil mutter something to James.

I looked up to my mum and I could see her eyes were ablaze through my tears. I’d really screwed up this time.

“They made Lex tell us all of it because they were too disgusted to tell us themselves. You realise what you’ve done to our reputation don’t you?” That was my mum...always thinking of others.

“I’m sorry.” I tried to keep my apologetic stance and remain calm but I could feel a wrecking ball of anger breaking down my inner walls.

“It’s not good enough! You can’t just apologise it away. You’re a freak!” That stung. The wrecking ball seemed to be pushed forwards in my head and the walls began falling like leaves.

“Jenny, please calm down. The poor boy’s terrified. He’s obviously having as much trouble dealing with this as w-” That was my dad but he was cut off by my mother.

“I will not calm down! I find out my son is a freak and I’m just supposed to lie down for a rest and sleep it off or something? Well I can’t! I won’t allow his sort in my house.”

“Mum don’t!” Hannah had piped up but mum was completely gone.

“I shall do what I want in my house! And I want you out Dean. Go on, you’ve already packed!”

“Jenny you can’t, you can’t do this to him.” My dad was pleading now.

“I can and I will.” I still hadn’t moved and she made for me. I jumped back to avoiding shocking her but she was quicker. Her arm shot out and scraped my bare skin with a long nail. A blue bolt leapt from my arm into her hand and she pulled it back like she’d been stung. Her anger somehow heightened.

“How dare you!” She screeched. “How dare you use your freak powers on me!”

I looked over to the window and felt like just jumping out to land heavily on the concrete pavement and hopefully break my neck. I saw Lex’s parents dragging her back to their house kicking and screaming. I ran to the window to open it and a bolt hit the blue handle. I cursed myself but opened the window and shouted out of it, tears running down my face.

“Lex! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”

“Dean!” she screamed back. “I’m sorry too! I didn’t mean to tell them! Call me soon! I love you!” and then she was inside, her front door slamming.

I rounded on my family in the doorway. My mother was still clutching her hand like it had been ripped off. She looked up at me angrily and there was nothing I could do when she lunged at me, hand swinging for my face.

One spark flared across the gap between her hand and my cheek before they connected with a resounding slap. But the connection was total and I felt current pouring into her. I jerked away as fast as I could but the damage was done and she slumped to the floor.

“Call an ambulance!” I screamed, but everyone just stood there. “Quick!” My dad seemed to wake up and his crisis mode took over.

“All of you! Kitchen! Now!” The speed with which they regained control and left was alarming. “Hannah, call an ambulance!” he called after them.

I looked down to the prone form of my mother on the floor, the electrical signals I was suddenly aware of that were all wrong were worrying me.

“Why did you do it son?” He asked, his eyes almost filling up with tears.

“I didn’t mean to! I can’t control it dad, its not my fault. I didn’t mean to!” I could feel the tears building again.

“I’m sorry son, but maybe you should go. I don’t know what we’ll tell the paramedics and if you’re here they might see something or realise something’s wrong.” He looked so sad and I knew he didn’t want me to leave but he could only see one option. I could only see one option. I had to leave.

I stepped over my mother and grabbed my toiletries from the sink area in a corner of the room and grabbed my pencil case and a few other things from the computer desk by the window.

I looked down at my mother again and saw that she wasn’t breathing. The arrhythmic electrical signals meant her heart wasn’t pumping right either. I had to do something.

My knowledge of too many hospital dramas kicked in and I guessed that this meant her heart was fibrillating. They used a defibrillator to deliver and electrical shock to the heart to reset its natural rhythm. If I could touch her for long enough then maybe...

My dad was fastening my suitcase for me and writing something on a piece of paper so I closed my eyes in order to see only the electric image of my mum’s failing body. I concentrated on the heart and its mixed-up electrics and bent down. I put my hand barely 10cm from her heart and touched her, just for a second. The jolt spread to her heart like I had hoped. It seemed to stop for a moment and I was afraid I’d killed her but it started again straight away. For a second I thought it hadn’t worked but then the electrics started ticking over with a regularity that fit into the pattern I recognised and it no longer stood out.

I opened my eyes and stood up to see my dad staring at me. “I’m so sorry, I’ll find you as soon as I can. Try and tell me where you are o.k boy?” He was blinking tears back furiously so I decided to let him keep his dignity. I grabbed my suitcase and got downstairs and to the door. I looked into the kitchen and saw Hannah in the hallway still with the phone in her hand but she was looking at me.

“I’m sorry Hannah, I’m so sorry.” I felt awful for not being able to control my stupid abilities and for leaving like this. “I’m so sorry.”

She just smiled at me with tears in her eyes and shook her head. Alice appeared behind her and mouthed the word “Go” to me with a smile. James and Phil were still in the kitchen and were stood up near the doorway staring at me. They looked angry.

My dad had appeared at the top of the stairs and said “I’m sorry about this son,” on his way down the stairs, “as soon as I can, I’ll find you, I promise.” I knew he meant it. He smiled fondly at me as Hannah started giving our address to the operator at the ambulance call centre.

“I’ll speak to you guys soon. I promise.” Alice looked up and smiled making “shoo” motions with her hands and dad half-raised a hand in a familiar wave of departure. Hannah finished giving the address and smiled at me before returning her attention to the phone. I opened the door, sparking off the metal latch and stepped out into the morning. It was still only just gone 10am and I dragged my case behind me out the door as my dad closed it behind me with a final wave. I looked up to Lex’s window and sure enough there she was, crying against the pane.

“Lex!” I shouted up to her.

She immediately swung the window open nearly breaking the hinges.

“Where are you going Dean?” That was a very good point. Where the hell was I going. The only place I’d ever stayed overnight was Lex’s and I didn’t have any relatives or any other friends that I knew well enough to stay with them, and then they’d have questions. I remembered the card in my pocket and fished it out.

“12 Ivywell Lane” I read off the card. Lex looked a little confused at first. “You know, up near the private school?” She was still baffled. Oh I thought to myself. “That’s where Tom lives.” Recognition dawned on Lex’s face and I heard a door open. Lex looked around and turned back to me.

“Call me o.k?” She seemed a little desperate. Her dad came up behind her and starting pulling the window shut but she put up a resistance worthy of her mother. “I’ll always be your friend Dean!” She was practically screaming now.

“I love you too Lex, I’ll see you soon!” I waved goodbye and the window slammed and locked shut and Lex was pulled back from the window. I felt like parts of me were being ripped up but I already let my guard down once and I wasn’t going to let it happen again. I headed off in the direction of Ivywell Lane.

Normally the walk would have only taken 45 minutes or so but with my bulky suitcase I didn’t arrive at number 12 until almost half past 11. The memories of this morning’s hasty escape came crashing back. It seemed like an age ago now that I’d run out of the hospital like some scared little schoolboy. I was stood outside the gates of a reasonable sized house which looked quite expensive for something this close to the city. There was a double garage and a huge porch with stone steps up to an intimidating green door with a huge doorbell and a lion-shaped knocker.

Where else was I supposed to go?

I pushed all my feelings down and swallowed a lump that was rising in my throat. I half-dragged, half-carried my suitcase across the gravelled drive and up the steps and hid it to one side of the door. I didn’t want to look like a total scab after all.

I took a long, calming breath and rang the doorbell. Which was so loud I nearly jumped out of my skin. I heard a muffled shout from the inside of the house, then an inner door opening and then the front door opened.


	4. Preamble

Tom stood in the doorway, freshly clothed and hair re-done in the spiked up fashion. I gave him a quick smile and said “Hi.” He looked a little surprised and then confused. For a second I panicked, remembering my running out on him earlier.

“Dean!” He let go of the door and smiled. “I thought...I thought you were going home?” That stung me and without warning tears started burning my eyes. Those walls that had been destroyed.

“They...they found out about...about my...about me.” I was trying my hardest but I felt a tear start to roll down my cheek. Apparently that was too much for Tom and he pulled me in tight for a rough hug. The brief tingling across my arms as he wrapped his around me didn’t feel strange this time, it felt comforting.

I felt more tears on my cheeks and I couldn’t hold them back. Tom was the only thing stopping me from hitting the floor as I sobbed into his shoulder. I let him be my complete support and let it all out. I’d nearly killed my own mother, my brothers hated me and my sisters were too young to understand. My dad, my ally through everything, had told me to leave. He’d always been there for me and he’d all-but thrown me out. I’d got so good at holding everything in that I’d almost forgotten how to let it out.

I sensed myself being moved and I heard a door shut but all I could feel was the pain of the rejection in my stomach. I just wanted to cry myself to sleep and not wake up again.

I felt more movement and felt something soft beneath me as I folded into a sitting position. I kept crying and I couldn’t have stopped if I’d even wanted to. It felt so good to let it all out.

After what could have been forever my tears stopped forming and my jerking crying subsided into sobs. I became aware of the world around me again and of the warmth of Tom’s chest I was leant against and the feeling of wetness against my forehead.

“Dean...Dean...Dean?” He spoke so softly. “Its o.k, you’re o.k Dean.”

I dragged myself upright and looked at the damp patch left on his top from my tears. I was sat on a white sofa but my legs were across Tom’s lap and I still had an arm over his shoulder and he had one on my back where he’d been holding me. I looked up to his face and I couldn’t help myself. His face creased into a worried frown and his eyes looking so sad. I felt like I was losing it again.

I could feel my control slipping again but it went the other way and my crying turned into laughter. He looked confused at first but a puzzled smile broke out on his face which sent me into fits of giggles. His puzzled smile turned into a deep and luxurious chuckle and we were soon holding on to each other for support as we rolled about on the sofa laughing.

“What’s all this racket?” I looked towards where the voice had come from and Susannah was stood at the threshold to the room we were in. She had a smile on her face despite her words. “Hello again Dean. I take it things didn’t go too well with your family?” It wasn’t really a question because she knew the answer. She had to have heard my crying. I put on a brave smile and shook my head, not trusting my voice to work properly.

“Can I get you anything? A drink or something? Do you drink tea?” I nodded. “Tom?” She looked at him as she questioned him. She had a hint of something, maybe amusement, playing across her features.

She left and I looked at Tom and realised the cause of her amusement. His newly-spiked hair was sticking out at chaotic angles and my hand on his flexing bicep as his arm grasped my waist looked a little compromising. I removed my hand and pulled myself off him, which didn’t quite work on account of our legs being totally tangled up and I ended up falling back onto the sofa and nearly rolling off but Tom caught me by the waist just in time.

The constant feel of him touching me was starting to make me nervous with how nice it felt. I pulled myself completely away and felt the tingle on my hand as it brushed past his exposed arm. I gave him a nervous smile and looked away, swallowing.

“You’re lucky I was here for that.” He smiled at me.

“For what?” I knew what he was talking about but I was starting to feel embarrassed and regretted it already.

“That outburst. You would have shorted out half the street if I hadn’t been there. You caught me off guard as it was, lucky I had a hand on your neck or you might have cooked me alive!” There was humour in his voice but I knew he meant it.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realise I was doing it.” I felt like a bit of a chump. “I can’t even tell when I’m electrocuting my friend!” Friend? When had I decided that? The only people I’d ever considered to be my friends were Lex, my little sisters and my dad. And I’d known them forever. His reaction was perfect.

He smiled and said, “Lucky for you, your friend is a walking roll of insulation tape!” I chuckled at this. It was just like we’d been at the hospital, and the white and cream of the décor and furnishings made me think of the clinical white of the hospital room. At least I didn’t have any bad memories there.

Tom’s mum came sweeping in with two white mugs of steaming hot tea and put them down on the gilt-framed glass coffee table on two white coasters. “There you go boys, steaming hot.” She looked at me. “I made yours like Tom’s dear, 5 minutes in the pot, lots of milk, no sugar.” Just how I liked it.

“That’s perfect Mrs....” I realised I didn’t even know her last name, oh no wait! It was on the card she gave me. I tried to remember the name I saw on the card. “Lawes?”

“Oh no Dean, Susannah is my name and I intend you to use it!” I felt a little embarrassed and looked at my lap.

“Thanks for the tea mum, now move along. Nothing to see here.” I laughed at his odd comment. Susannah wasn’t so impressed.

“I’ll take Dean’s things up to the spare room shall I?” She had a superior look on her face and disappeared into the hallway. A moment later she was taking my suitcase upstairs.

We sat and drank our tea and made a few jokes. Tom kept laughing at me every time I took a sip from my cup. I only realised that I was sparking into it when I took my eyes off his to look into my cup as I drank. It was weird watching a spark jump from your lip and not being able to feel it.

Susannah reappeared in the archway and said “I’ve taken Dean’s things to the second guest room so he can be next door to your room, we don’t want any electrical fires during the night do we?” She smiled and Tom almost laughed but the thought scared me. I could actually do something like that, I couldn’t even control my sparking into a cup of tea. A thought hit me.

“I didn’t spark into my tea at home so how come I did just now?” Susannah looked at me like I’d fallen out of a tree but Tom appeared to be thinking.

“Well...” he thought a little more and seemed to reach an internal decision, “you were o.k at home, right? You felt comfortable and safe and weren’t under any stress or anything?”

I half-shrugged “Only a little, because of my mum. And having my dad and my sisters there made me feel safe and happy.”

“Well when you were upset earlier the charge you were putting out could have powered this whole city for weeks, I don’t know whether I would have been able to contain it if we hadn’t had a connection.” I found myself wondering again why I liked looking into his eyes so much, I loved the way he got little creases on either side when he laughed. I shrugged.

“Alright, do you think I’m safe enough for the grand tour?” I wrenched my eyes from his and looked around at the impeccably furnished room. I felt like I didn’t fit. “Are you sure its o.k that I stay?” If the rest of the house is like this it really would be a great two weeks but I don’t think I’d ever feel like I belonged here.

“Where else are you going to go?” Tom looked a little hurt as he said this. “I’m guessing we were the last resort?”

I looked at my knees again. “Lex told her parents too, I didn’t tell her not to and they’re usually so accepting and nice I mean, her older sister has more tattoos and piercings than I can count. They were the ones who told my mum and…and then…then I h-” I choked. I couldn’t even say it. I’d hurt my own mother and I couldn’t even face up to it, hell I couldn’t even say it.

“Come on then,” Tom stood up, “there’s a whole house for you to see.” He made a sweeping gesture encompassing the room and said. “This is the lounge. Couple of books and a chair or two, nothing good in here.” He offered me a hand and was rewarded by a warm tingle before I grabbed it and he pulled me up. He smiled at his mum as he led me out towards the kitchen. I could feel her eyes on my back as we went into the kitchen but Tom distracted me.

“So here’s the fridge,” which was big enough to have its own post code, “the cooker, the sink and the microwave.” The room was almost as white as the lounge; the utilities he’d pointed out were chrome-silver though, as were a few of the other fixtures and fittings. He showed me through the drawers and cabinets and said what to do with dirty dishes.

We went back out into the hall and to our left was the front door and to the right was a set of white stairs leading up to an open landing but there were still two archways downstairs to investigate.

“The one to the left of the stairs is mum’s study. It’s got all her stuff in there and she hides away in their for privacy, it’s got an actual door" none of the other rooms downstairs did, "and if its closed then its best to leave it that way.” I nodded my understanding.

“This other room is the dining room.” He shook his head. “Big table. Nothing much to look at in there.” I stole a quick glance anyway. The huge darkwood table with ten matching chairs were relatively plain and so was the rich burgundy carpet on the floor but the walls were lined with shelves, all covered with trophies and shields and there was a plaque or five up on each wall. There was also a large glass-fronted wood cabinet at one end of the room which contained what were probably a few of the more treasured rewards, one of which I recognised but couldn’t put a name to. I’d have to come and examine it later.

We headed on up the large white staircase and Tom pointed to the left to his mum’s bedroom and the first guest bedroom. Straight ahead was the room I was going to be occupying for the duration of my stay, it was big and surprisingly blue. It was as big as the room me and my two brothers shared but it felt twice that. My suitcase was at the foot of the huge double and I couldn’t resist taking a running jump onto it. I sat up and faced the door to see Tom laughing at me. I just grinned at him and took a good look around the room. It had everything I needed except for a sink and I noticed another door to the left. I went over to it and pulled it open to reveal a bathroom tiled in golden yellow with a white sink, toilet and bath all with gold fixtures. I noticed one end of the room had a sliding glass double door and I went over to investigate.

“That’s the shower.” I turned around with a look of absolute wonder on my face to stare gormlessly at Tom and he laughed at me, again. “You need to close that mouth of yours, people might get ideas.” I nearly bit my tongue I closed my mouth so fast.

“You’ll have to give it a go later, I’ll show you how to work it.” That offer was more tempting than it should have been. Once again I resorted to diversion.

“Where does that other door go?” I pointed to the door opposite the one from the one we had entered through.

“My room.” He cringed a little. “Sorry about the mess, I didn’t have a chance to clean up or anything...” he trailed off.

“It’s o.k, I roomed with two older brothers remember, they were like walking bombs so I’m sure any....thing.......you....” I’d stopped because I was truly mystified. He'd opened the door to his room and it completely knocked the wind out of me. I actually couldn’t see any floor, there wasn’t even a single piece of carpet showing through anywhere. “What happened!?”

He just shrugged at me. “Terminal case of messy combined with chronic laziness.” I was startled and looked at him with what must have been total horror on my face. He tried to look apologetic but he wasn’t really sorry. How was he not sorry? I think I actually had a nightmare about this once.

I was more than a little bit obsessive-compulsive. It felt like the rolling hills of intermingled washing and clean clothes had actually stepped out of my own personal horror movie. Even the walls weren’t spared, countless sets of shelves and storage spaces were overflowing with stuff. Not just stuff, it was “stuff”. The kind of “stuff” that, no matter how hard you tidy it and no matter how much you throw away it just resurfaces again in a matter of hours.

My brothers made this kind of mess, but Tom hadn’t had my mother keeping it in check. It looked like someone, at some point in the distant past, had attempted to tidy it up but there was almost no semblance of order at all to work from. This was a challenge. The room itself was the gauntlet and had been thrown at my feet by the hand of fate. This room was going to be tidy if it was the last thing I did.

“Are you o.k?” Tom’s voice snapped me out of my inner waging of war against the room. I must have totally spaced out and I noticed that I was in my patented “battle-stance” I assumed automatically during any form of confrontation.

“Your room...is going down.” My eyes must have been windows to the fires of hell or something similar because Tom took a scared step back into a pile of clothes which turned out to be a covering for a pile of books. He was trying desperately to regain his balance but was failing miserably. In a last ditch attempt he reached out for me and my right forearm tingled for a split second before he managed to grab on. Unfortunately it didn’t help either of us. I was laughing by this point and was having trouble enough keeping balance on the hillocks of clothes, let alone help Tom to do so.

I made a noise something like “whaohgahhhhh” and landed with an audible thump on top of Tom. It knocked the wind out of him, causing another special noise along the lines of “aghhhooof” to issue from him. But I hardly noticed because of my own fall. When he started gasping and choking for air I was afraid I’d broken his ribs or something. So I immediately wedged myself up on all fours over him to see if he was o.k and avoid causing more damage.

“Tom?” He gasped quite heavily. “Tom!?” He gasped again then swallowed. He made a strange coughing/hiccupping noise and tried to speak. He sucked in a huge breath and swallowed again. His eyes seemed to refocus on me.

“You idiot.” A grin broke out on his face making those little creases appear round his eyes. “You-” he swallowed again, “you only winded me!” His grin turned into a full-toothed smile and he brought a hand up to rub his stomach where I’d collided with it.

It suddenly dawned on me that our bodies were almost touching in various places and actually touching in others and our faces were only centimetres apart. I felt a tingle but it wasn’t from anywhere exposed: my cock had started to stir.

I freaked and flipped off him so fast I ended up on my back in a valley of clothes and magazines which I noticed smelled like Tom. I turned my head to the side and he was looking at me with a small amused smile on his face, propped up on his elbow and still rubbing his stomach which was lifting his t-shirt up just slightly and exposing the smallest amount of skin and I couldn’t keep my eyes off it.

I felt something move in my boxer briefs which brought my eyes to my jeans which were too tight to hide anything conspicuous. I sat up and, without looking at him, asked “What about the room across the hall then?”

He dragged himself upright still massaging his belly and little and offered me a hand getting up but I ignored it and got up by myself just brushing his hand, the resulting tingle almost made me shiver all over and sent a rush down my spine which I ignored as hard as I could. My hand still quaked involuntarily. I all-but ran out of the room and into the hall, stumbling over the assorted piles of “stuff” on my way.

“This is my favourite room in the house. Mum hardly ever comes in here.”

“Even less than she goes in your room?” I couldn’t resist a little dig about that. I was angry at him because of what had happened even though I knew it wasn’t his fault.

“Even less than that.” He opened the door and I was in love. It wasn’t by any means the biggest room in the house or even the most immaculately decorated. In fact it was smaller and dark in comparison. But that was probably because of the smoked glass windows and the copious amounts of electrical wizardry spread throughout the darkened room.

I gawped at everything for a moment, taking it all in. On the opposite wall was a plasma screen the size of the coffee table downstairs with an open cupboard beneath it revealing video, DVD, Sky and multiple consoles hooked up to it and in the middle of the room was a big black leather couch the size of a double bed. I almost popped with the excitement right then as I heard a quiet hum from one side of the room and was drawn to it. There was the most gorgeous double aspect desk against the wall and on either half was my dream come true. A flat panel 19” monitor, wireless 3 piece speaker set, customised wireless keyboard and optical mouse and not a tower in sight. They must have been hidden away in the desk somewhere and I couldn’t help myself, I just had to touch one. But then I remembered, I made electrical equipment go bang. I looked at Tom and he seemed to have noticed what I was looking at because he smiled and tilted his head slightly to the left and I felt the tingle all over my body. I shivered, it felt like he was touching me all over.

“Use the one on the left, one on the right’s got all my stuff on it. Just log into the account, there’s no password.” I practically ran over to it, I hadn’t even dreamt about seeing something like this in my lifetime. I gave the mouse a shove and the screen warmed up almost instantly. I followed Tom’s instructions for logging on and was soon presented with a crisp and clean desktop. Tom gave me a cheeky smile around the CD stack. “How about we warm up with me kicking your ass. Your choice of game.” That sounded like a challenge too. I found a game which I knew and proceeded to beat Tom into a mushy pulp. “Not bad, not bad at all.” He said with a satisfied smile. “Now its my choice of game.” we played just about every game Tom had. He beat me pretty soundly but they were his games after all.

Susannah poked her head around the door. “You boys want some food, its almost 1 o’ clock?” The last few hours had whizzed by, I’d obviously been enjoying myself.

“I could murder a chip sandwich!” Tom said loudly. His stomach rumbled just to emphasise the point.

“And you Dean? Something a little healthier maybe?” Susannah made a ‘my son is a junk-food junkie’ face which earned her a ‘bite me’ smile from Tom.

“Does Tomato Ketchup with it count as healthy?” I was beginning to feel comfortable so I thought sarcasm may have been allowed. Apparently it was because she gave me a ‘very clever you little so-and-so’ look and disappeared to the kitchen.

Tom stood and stretched up involuntarily, exposing a few centimetres of his midriff right in my eye line. I couldn’t help noticing again the tan of his skin and the dark hair which seemed to join his jeans and t-shirt to each other. His arms returned to his side and I realised what I was doing and mentally kicked myself and stood up keeping my eyes firmly on the door.

I think Tom chuckled to himself but it could have just been a yawn. I followed Tom downstairs and had several rounds of chip-filled sandwiches. I followed Tom back upstairs afterwards and we unpacked some of my stuff but soon got bored and were back amongst the technology playing on stupid games.

Many afternoons were spent in that room over the next two weeks. They were two of the best weeks of my life and passed with almost no incident. My dad came to visit and he got on really well with Tom and Susannah. As he was leaving he pulled me into a tight hug and said that I looked happier than he’d seen me in a while and that he’d drop by as soon as he could. Apparently my mother had declared a war of attrition against me.

Dad did drop by a few more times in the course of the two weeks and we got all the arrangements sorted for schooling overseas and passports and things, Susannah helped a lot with that; she had a friend who worked in the emigration offices and pushed my application through quickly so I could be set-up to go on the day before term started.

It was only as I was packing my stuff into my suitcase again that it fully dawned on me what was happening. I was going to America to study at a school for people like me; mutants. I was a mutant, and I was going to Xavier’s school for mutants like me. I felt a bit lost amongst it all but there was one familiar thing that I knew I’d have with me; Tom.


	5. In-Flight Entertainment

So two of the best weeks ever passed by without any trouble, Dad managed to visit me three times and him and Susannah routinely had to have a room to themselves to discuss the documents and other stuff they needed to talk about. Lex even managed to get away from her parents’ neo-Nazi regime long enough say hi and meet Tom. It was nice to see her before I left but she seemed guarded, like she was holding back something. That made me sad because we always used to tell each other everything. The day of departure soon arrived and I realised I was nervous as hell. I didn’t want to say it but I had doubts in my mind about everything; the flight, the school, the mutant thing, the mother I nearly killed and even though I hated to admit it I had doubts about Tom.

He’d taught me a lot. I was now regulating myself all day and all night without assistance. I was even gaining some control over my powers. I was still a little worried about the security barriers but Tom said he’d help out with that.

Apart from Lex he was the best friend I’d ever had and I’d only known him two weeks and I really don’t make friends easily. Even more frightening was the things that crept into my head when I wasn’t keeping a hold on my thoughts. Sometimes, when I was trying to get to sleep all I could think of is how his skin felt or how his hair looked or...

The voice of an announcer over the airport’s loudspeaker system snapped me back into the present. I tried to listen but it was lost in the sea of noise. I looked down at my bucket of tea I’d got from the café where Tom, Susannah and I were sat on almost-comfortable chairs at a small round table. I wasn’t drinking it and it wasn’t waking me up. We’d got up at 4:30 this morning to get to the airport for a 7:00 check in. I’m generally not bad in the mornings, but 4:30 was taking the piss. It was practically yesterday for Gods’ sake!

Tom kicked me lightly under the table, “Wake up sleepy!”

I groaned and rubbed my leg almost letting my head flop face-first into my mammoth mug of tea. Susannah noticed and snorted a laugh.

“You’re supposed to drink it.” she laughed again.

I gave her a suitably sarcastic smile and picked up the huge cup and drank the lukewarm tea with industrial-sized gulps. As I was chugging down the contents of the cup I thought how much I’d grown to like Susannah and enjoy her company. She seemed to let down a few barriers after a day or two and soon me and her were laughing and joking with each other like we’d know each other forever. We even spent a night on the sofa, just me and her, talking for hours about anything and everything. It only ended when Tom came downstairs at 2am, wearing his bed-shorts and looking bleary-eyed and with his hair all messed up. I couldn’t not stare at his body, shining in the dim light until I realised what I was doing and mentally slapped myself before disappearing off to bed.

I drained the last of the tea and put it down feeling triumphant and looked up only to be greeted by looks of mock horror from Tom and Susannah. “I’ve never seen such determination. Truly astonishing.” Susannah was getting really good at sarcasm after having me around for two weeks. I rolled my eyes at her over-dramatically and checked one of the big clocks which were scattered generously around the airport.

We only had ten minutes before we had to go into the departure lounge. My dad wasn’t here yet. He said he would be, so why wasn’t he here. Perhaps something had happened to him, what if mum had found out where he was going?

“Its o.k, he’ll be here.” Tom said, as if hearing my thoughts.

“He’s late.” I stated.

“That doesn’t mean he’s not coming.” Susannah smiled at me. It was a genuine smile laced with concern, not a brave face put on to soften an inevitable blow. That calmed me a little.

I wasn’t hysterical, yet. I was just really anxious and a little paranoid. In retrospect it was pointless panic because my dad was never on time and he never broke a promise. It wasn’t any surprise when he turned up with only 5 minutes to spare.

He gave me an update on the home front and wished me good luck and then took Susannah to one side for a quiet conversation involving a lot of nodding and hand gestures.

I was waiting for them to finish and turned to Tom who was looking at me with concern in his face. “What?” I said.

“Nothing, you just looked a bit sad is all.”

“Maybe that’s because I am? This is the last time I can see my dad for the best part of a year, wouldn’t you be upset?” There was more heat in that sentence than I intended and I immediately regretted it.

“I haven’t seen my dad in three years, I cope.” There was no emotion there when he said that, which meant he was burying it. I didn’t want to press the issue because this wasn’t the time or the place so I mumbled an apology and we stood in uncomfortable silence until my dad broke it.

“Have a safe journey, and call me when you can. Remember that they’re 5 hours behind over there, so call me wh-”

“I know dad, I know!”

“Course you do. Try not to get too lonely,” he looked at Tom, “keep him company, you hear?” Tom looked at his shoes quite intensely and I wondered why. My dad smiled at Susannah and she smiled back. He put a hand round my shoulder and messed my hair up a bit.

“What was that for?”

“’Cos you’re my son.”

“I suppose that will have to do.” He smiled at me and playfully smacked me round the head.

“This is it, I’ll speak to you as soon as its humanly possible o.k? I best get to work, and you three have a plane to catch.”

“By dad.” It was ripping me up but I had to let go, even though I didn’t want to. I gave him one last smile and turned to face the customs barrier.

“Soon, o.k.” His voice was steady but I knew his eyes would soon be tearing up.

“Yeah dad, soon.” I gave him one last smile and turned to face the customs barrier which we started walking towards with our carry-on luggage. I couldn’t trust myself to not run back to him if I looked behind me so I kept looking dead ahead and kept walking.

I put my hand-luggage on the belt and couldn’t bear it any more, I looked around to where he should have been stood but the crowd was obscuring where he would have been. I tried to see around people and willed them to move out the way but I couldn’t catch even a glimpse of him.

“Excuse me sir,” I snapped my head around to look at the customs officer who was speaking to me, “could you walk through the arch please?”

I did as he said and walked through the arch and it didn’t make any beeping noise, which surprised me at first because I knew I would have sent the electromagnetic field haywire in my agitated state, even perhaps when I was calm my conductivity might have set it off. However I looked at Tom stood a few metres away and he smiled and winked at me and I felt his tingle on my left forearm which made me jump. I gave him a severe look and made a mental note to exact my revenge for that later.

We sat around in the Departure Lounge for an hour and a half or so before they called our flight to gate 15. I hefted my bag onto one shoulder as I stood up and braced myself. I looked at Tom and he smiled back, which made me feel better.

“Now, are you sure you’ve both got everything?” Susannah asked.

“Of course we have mum! Come on, lets go.” said Tom.

Susannah was going to fly over and go with us for the first day and then stay overnight and then she would visit some relatives she had in Florida who she hadn’t seen in years. We handed our boarding passes over and walked down the long tubular walkway to the waiting plane, greeted by the smiling stewards and stewardesses as we entered.

We got pointed to our seats, which were the three on one side of the aisle and I was sat by the window. Having never flown before I didn’t know what to expect but when they did the safety announcements I was getting a little nervous. When they requested that all electrical equipment was turned off I panicked and I’m sure the light over my head flickered, but I felt a tingle on my right hand and a soft, warm pressure and looked down to see Tom’s hand on mine. I just stared at it in confusion for a bit and then looked at him with an expression of...something...on my face. Whatever expression I was carrying can’t have been good because the warmth was sucked right out of his smile and his face went blank as the smile disappeared as his hand moved off mine.

I looked out of the window at the grey runway to avoid Tom’s eyes, he’d looked so empty...why did I care so much? The stewardesses had sat down and I heard the engines power up suddenly. I leaned forwards so I could look back towards the wings out of my window and saw the blur of the jet engines in their casings.

As the plane lurched forwards under the awesome power of the engines I felt my stomach lurch with excitement, just seeing the raw power that was being pumped out and being able to hear it and almost feel it through my seat was amazing.

As we taxied down the runway and the plane began to accelerate more and more I felt my heart thumping in my chest, this was one of the best feelings I’d ever had. Trees and grass were screaming past the window so fast they were one long green blur. When the front of the plane tipped up I thought I’d be pushed so far back in my seat it would snap backwards. Thankfully it didn’t but we stayed at this alarming angle for some time. All the time we were climbing I watched out of the window as everything got smaller and smaller, my gaze only broken when I was handed a mint to suck to stop my ears popping from the rapid altitude increase.

When we finally levelled out we were way above cloud level and I was again completely entranced by the view. The shifting clouds looked so different up here. I thought back to the afternoons I’d spent sprawled out in my back garden next to Lex, looking at the clouds and seeing odd shapes in them and pretending to see the same things she did. I laughed to myself remembering the stupid shapes I’d seen and then a soft pinging noise rang throughout the cabin.

“What was that?” I asked.

“The seatbelt light going off.” Said Tom who was sat next to me, pointing at the little panel which was, only a moment earlier, lit with a seatbelt icon.

“Oh,” was all I could really say, “Is that good?”

Tom stifled a snigger and said “It means you can take your seatbelt off. You’ve really never been on a plane before have you?”

I gave him what I hoped was an evil look and started battling with my seatbelt, unfortunately the belt was winning and Tom laughed at me again.

“Oh Gods, let me do it!” He sounded a little resigned to being my tutor for the duration of the flight. He twisted sideways in his seat and reached across my arm, which tingled with the closeness but that was nothing compared to when his hands got onto my belt. It felt like my entire groin was on fire and everything went a little out of focus. It was all I could do to not whimper.

“See you just lift this bit and the other side just falls out.” Then he looked at my face. “Dean? Are you o.k?”

All I could do was swallow the lump in my throat and force a smile and try to nod. I shook off my belt and shifted myself sideways to look like I was trying to get a better view out of the window instead of hiding my embarrassment. It had felt so...strange. It shouldn’t have felt that good, sending little tingling jolts of heaven right up into my brain. I couldn’t stop myself thinking how good it felt. I didn’t feel as bad as I thought I would for thinking that but what if he could tell? I’d had strange feelings towards Tom for the past two weeks, thinking about how warm his skin is, how deep his brown eyes are, how soft his hair is, how his smile makes me feel warm. I’d formed some theories as to why I was thinking like that and there was only one worrying conclusion and I didn’t like it.

I spent a long time looking out the window and just thinking, hardly talking at all. I was fascinated by the clouds but I was thinking too much to be able to concentrate on them. We were offered tea and coffee at several points in the flight and we had food at about lunchtime. I didn’t think it was that bad, despite what people always said about airline food, although it was quite salty.

Coming into land was another new experience. We circled around above New York for a while, waiting for a space to land in. It was quite breathtaking seeing the city sprawled out beneath me in all its mid afternoon glory. As we began our final descent I felt like my stomach was about to come out of my mouth, I’m not sure whether it was nerves or the actual descent but I wasn’t enjoying it.

I watched out of my window as the city got closer, feeling my nerves grow with every second. The tires screeching on the tarmac gave me a jolt and I remembered myself. I took a deep breath and pushed all my feelings back inside. We disembarked down another umbilical tunnel and into the main airport. It really was as huge as I thought it would be.

Susannah took the lead. We got our luggage from the carousels and headed for the car rental booths. Having already booked a car we were out of the city proper within the hour and driving upstate towards Xavier’s.

“I’ve been allowed to stay overnight at the mansion in the guest rooms but I shall be going quite early in the morning as I would like to be in Florida as soon as I can. I haven’t seen Mary for years and I’d like to make as much of this week as possible.” Susannah was telling us as we drove along a tree-crowded hillside.

A lot of the journey was spent in thoughtful silence; I looked out of the window a lot. The GPS lady periodically instructed Susannah to take turnings at certain points in the journey, but I took no notice. I spent my time taking in the rich countryside, enjoying the turbulent hills, glass-smooth rivers and winding lakes. As we rounded a sharp bend I saw a large stone mansion at the end of a valley, mostly hidden by trees. By the sheer size of it I knew it must be where we were heading.

Tom looked round at me from the front seat, he had a smile on his face but his eyes were nervous. He was trying to reassure me when he wasn’t all that assured himself. I had to give him points for trying.

In less than half an hour we were stopped at a huge pair of iron-wrought gates. I was getting used to being able to see the overlay of electricity in everything but I wasn’t prepared for this. The mansion was bigger underground than it was above ground! There were huge empty chambers and tiny little corridors, small and medium sized rooms and great jumbo-sized pathways. I think Tom was probably staring too, but I couldn’t see his face from where I was sat. Although I could imagine the look of gormlessness, which made me smile.

The gates swung slowly open and we started slowly down the driveway. A little blonde kid waved the car down. I saw an odd surge of electrical activity in his head just as I felt the same pattern surge through the gates’ opening mechanisms. This was the first time I’d met the “mutation” before the “person”.

As we pulled up to him I noticed he was smiling, he had a really innocent smile but something about him screamed maturity. He looked about 14 but the area around his eyes told a different story. He looked tired.

Susannah wound the window down. “Hello, I’m Susannah Lawes. I’m delivering Thomas Lawes and Dean Roberts and I have been told I’m allowed to stay overnight?”

“Hey there, my name’s Tyler.” He said in his quiet, friendly American accent. His eyes glazed for a just a second so he seemed to be looking into some other world and there was more electric activity in the depths of his head. His gaze returned to Susannah and he smiled. “That’s right, just drive up to the end and then go down into the underground lot and park up. If you bring your bags to the entrance hall,” he said, pointing towards a large set of open wooden doors leading into the mansion, “I’ll show you to where you’re staying.” He looked to me and Tom. “You guys are in the same room, right?” Tom smiled and nodded. I hadn’t really thought about it so I just accepted it, nodding.

We followed Tyler’s instructions and were walking into the entrance hall with our bags as he appeared from one of the corridors leading off it. He smiled again and said, “We’ll take this lift up to your floor.” pointing to a piece of wall.

Until we got closer I didn’t see the small “call elevator” button almost hidden by the wood panelling. Tyler pressed it and a few seconds later a piece of panelling just like all the others pulled back from its position and slid smoothly sideways. I was already in awe of this place because of its sheer size and beauty but this threw me completely and I wondered immediately what other secret treasures this building held. I climbed into the metal lift and I noticed there was only buttons for our current floor and ones above it.

I looked beneath my feet again and closed my eyes so I only saw the electrical resonances. There were at least 4 floors beneath ours. There was definitely something good down there if it was so secret even the hidden elevators didn’t go there. I caught Tyler looking at me and he must have noticed the look of mischief in my eyes because he grinned back at me. “We’re going to the third floor.” He said and pressed the button with a big number 3 on it. I realised why the lift only took a few seconds to reach us after calling it because then we shot upwards, and I watched the blue outlines of the floors shoot by. The journey to the third floor took us all of ten seconds but it was the smoothest ride in a lift I’d ever experienced.

We got out of the lift into a normal corridor, wood panelling on both sides, stretching to the right and left with another corridor crossing some way along to the right of us. I looked behind me, back into the lift but was greeted by another piece of inconspicuous wooden panelling, with a concealed “call elevator” button nearby. I shook my head in wonderment.

“Now, you two are in room 363, which is along here, so follow me.” We went to the right and down the adjoining corridor which turned out to be extremely long and spanned the length of the building, with many side corridors coming off it. We went to the left and to the left again down another corridor which ended, like all the others did, with a tall gothic-style window. The light from all the windows meant that it was surprisingly light in the corridors. Tyler led us to a door right at the end of the corridor, on the left.

“You got a room with a view, lucky pair.” He opened the door inwards showing a small but comfortable room with a single bed on either side and a double wardrobe at the foot of one bed and a large chest of drawers at the base of the other. There was also another door in the middle of the room on the other side. “That’s your en-suite shower room and WC.” Tyler said nodding towards the door. There were a pair of identical desks, small but not too small, at the head of each bed in wood matching the panelling and identical chairs, made of the same dark wood but still comfortable looking.

I made a decision and headed for the bed by the window. I put my suitcase on it and looked out to the grounds. It was a nice view. I took a deep breath and sat down on the bed, resting my elbow on my case.

“I was going to say make yourselves at home but that’s obviously not needed.” Tyler said.

I smiled back at him, letting out a little chuckle.

“Looks like I’ve got the other bed then.” Tom said with a raised eyebrow.

“Looks like it!” I grinned.

Tyler turned to Susannah and said. “Well I’ll show you to your room then Mrs. Lawes.”

“Please dear, call me Susannah. Everybody else does.” She rolled her eyes at me and Tom grinning at each other and followed Tyler back to the main corridor with a small smile on her face.

“Looks like we’re stuck here now.” Tom said with a grin.

“Yeah but at least we’re stuck here together.” I said with a bigger grin.

Before I could do anything about it he had pulled me up into a hug. “Thanks for saying that.” he almost whispered into my ear.

I had to stop myself from shuddering at this feeling of closeness, he felt so warm and comfortable I wanted to grab on and not let go. I think my subconscious took over when I said, “No, thank you.” In an almost-whisper.

He pulled back from me and said “How do you mean?”

“You’re one of the best friends I’ve ever had. I couldn’t have said that if it wasn’t for you.” I still had a hand on his shoulder when I said it and I pulled him back in for another tight hug, our cheeks just brushing as I pulled him in.

My left hand had stayed around his neck, my right hand however had strayed onto his back and was tracing idle patterns. I could feel Tom’s hot breath in my ear and as he lowered his head to my shoulder I felt his soft lips brush against it. My left hand on his neck started playing with his hair. I was so caught up in the moment I didn’t realise what I was doing, or what Tom was doing. His left hand was on my shoulder by his head and was tracing slow circles around the tensed muscle. His right hand was on my back, slipping ever lower, leaving a trail of warmth, setting my skin on fire as it brushed over it. When it reached the small of my back a tingling not inspired by electricity spread right through me, I shuddered with it and that snapped me out of whatever spell I’d been under.

I pulled out of the hug too quickly, Tom’s smell still lingering in my head, dizzying me. I couldn’t miss the look of hurt in Tom’s eyes though. Had he wanted that? I shook my head clear and climbed onto my bed to look out of the large window.

“I...sorry.” He said. What the hell did I say to that?

“No....um, I mean....its o.k.” I couldn’t look at him, I couldn’t face him. Had we both wanted that? I was snapped out of my thoughts by a door shutting loudly in the corridor. This was followed by loud footfalls and a person in the doorway, where Tom and I were both looking. We were greeted by a smiling, slightly chubby face and smiling eyes half-hidden by a long mop of untidy, straight blonde hair.

“Hey guys!” He said enthusiastically. “I’m your neighbour! Boyd Wilson.” I plastered on my smile and got off my bed, moving past Tom.

“Dean Roberts.” I said offering my hand, careful to keep my electrical charge away from him. I looked him properly in the face, to memorise it, and noticed his eyes. They were yellowy orange. A stark contrast to mine and Tom’s dark brown.

“I guess they didn’t have any trouble noticing you were a mutant then.” I joked.

Boyd turned his eyes downwards and forced a small laugh, but it was strained. I guessed tricky territory. He looked up at me again.

“Sorry, I-” I began, but Boyd cut me off.

“Its o.k, I shouldn’t be touchy about it, the kids at school used to tease me about it before I came here.” He looked sad, and I didn’t know what to say. Tom came to the rescue, stepping forwards to shake his hand.

“Tom Lawes.” He said confidently, offering Boyd a hand which he took and shook with renewed vigour.

“I think having different coloured eyes is cool, how boring is brown eyes?” I said, encompassing me and Tom in a gesture.

Tom looked at me quizzically, “What?” I said.

“Of course, you can’t see yourself when you switch on can you?” He said, smacking his forehead lightly.

“What are you talking about?” I was very confused now.

“Come here.” He said in an exasperated tone. He brushed past me and into the bathroom. I followed and so did Boyd. “Look in the mirror.” he said, still exasperated.

“I don’t understand.” I said, looking at myself.

“Look closer.” He said.

I put my face right up to the shiny surface and all I could see was my eyes, and the little blue flecks that were swimming around in my brown eyes. They were so tiny to not even be noticeable unless you were inches from my face. I pulled back sharply. “How long have they done that?”

“Oh that’s not the main attraction.” Tom said. “Let loose and look again.”

“But what about Boyd?” I said

He put his hand on my shoulder and I felt a tingle all over me, I brushed aside the enjoyment of it and looked back into the mirror. “Now let loose, I’ve got you covered.”

I did what he said. I let down the guards which I normally kept in place and just let my energy do what it wanted. I could feel it buffeting against Tom’s insulation but only in the back of my mind because I was in total shock. The small blue flecks had spread and now my brown eyes were a shifting pattern of blues and turquoise. I gasped. “Why didn’t you tell me that happened?”

“I thought you knew.” He said, shrugging but still keeping his hand firmly on my shoulder. “But that’s nothing compared to when you really let it all out.”

I looked at his reflection in the mirror questioningly and he nodded.

I consciously let my inner charge build and build until I was sure Tom’s insulation must be struggling to keep it in. When I looked at my eyes again I was shocked for a second time. Even Boyd gasped.

The whites of my eyes and my pupils were still their normal black and white but my irises had changed completely. The usual light brown had been replaced with blue. Not shifting, multi-coloured blue but crystalline, almost-white blue, so clear it was almost sparkling. I shut down my charge quickly, buttoning it down and tying it up in a corner of my subconscious.

Tom removed his hand and I turned to face him and Boyd.

“Hmmm...” was about all I could muster, “so when’s dinner?”

Tom burst out laughing and Boyd grinned widely and soon dissolved into giggling. I put on a look of mock horror and crossed my arms huffily. “Well really!” I said mock-angrily and stormed out into the corridor in a mock strop, which just made Tom and Boyd laugh harder. “Like a pair of hyenas!” I said throwing my hands up in despair. Tom was holding onto the sink with one hand and clutching his stomach with the other. There were tears rolling out of Boyd’s eyes and he was leaning on the tiled wall for support. “Gits! Complete and utter gits!” I exclaimed and pivoted smartly on my heel and got out of view of the door and ran for the hidden elevator. I could feel the evil grin on my face as I heard them shout after me.

Just a quick run around the grounds, to tire them out. I’d always liked running and been good at it, it was about the only thing that I could do to any level of decency in the sporting arena. I bolted down the long corridor until I came to a wide open area with large staircases leading down and skipped down them as fast as I could. I heard running feet following me in the corridor. I spilled off the bottom of the stairs and headed straight out of an even larger set of wooden double doors than the one we had entered through.

I paused for a second on the gravelled pathway to plan a route and immediately saw where I wanted to get to: a nice big healthy oak tree. I heard my name being called again and when I looked back it wasn’t Tom who was in front but Boyd, he was almost at the bottom of the stairs and Tom was nowhere to be seen, Boyd’s slightly fuzzy-edged appearance obviously hiding a turn of speed. I watched for a second as he leapt the whole last flight of stairs and landed in an athletic roll finishing in a crouch. Some competition. Excellent.

He looked up and his yellow eyes flashed at me, I grinned widely to show my amusement and he smiled back but almost jumped up into a run and I remembered myself and set off again too.

I could feel Boyd’s mass of electricity gaining on me from behind so I gave it a little more, which he matched. So I went a little faster, and he kept accelerating. I really started running, but he still matched and bettered my speed. I went all out, knowing that no-one had ever been able to catch me at that speed and I smiled as he only got fast enough to keep up. As I pounded turf, remembering to breathe, the tree loomed closer and closer and I remembered to slow down.

I really slammed on the brakes to avoid a painful collision with the tree. I managed to slow down enough that I hardly had to use my hands to stop completely, and then I had to jump aside so Boyd could stop. I shouldn’t have been shocked by what he did after his stunt on the stairs but I was.

He didn’t slam the brakes on as I had but kept going and ran about 4 metres up the tree’s broad trunk which slowed him right down and then he kicked off and somersaulted in mid air to land lightly on the grassy floor with hardly a sound. “Wow,” I said, slightly in awe and a little out of breath, “you don’t look like a gymnast.”

I only realised that it sounded a little bit mean after I said it, but Boyd brushed it off. “I’m not really, I’ve never done any training. It comes with the eyes.” That made sense. I had to ask the obvious question. “So that’s your mutation then?”

“Not quite.” He said. He seemed to be looking around for something and he looked up into the tree. A large electrical pulse fired right at the base of his brain and the tree seemed to come alive. All of a sudden birds and squirrels broke from their hiding places in the tree and flew or climbed down. The birds alighted on Boyd’s naturally broad shoulders and one outstretched forearm and the squirrels that had appeared from the tree had climbed up his legs and were resting on his other outstretched forearm, one sat in his open palm.

Tom came flapping up behind Boyd looking extremely out of breath. He almost collapsed against the tree and was panting like a dog after a three day run in the height of summer. The birds on Boyd’s shoulders and arm were twittering quietly.

“Rugby boy here has less stamina than your average smoker and even less speed.” I said, nodding towards Tom.

Boyd smirked.

“What do you call that then?” I asked.

“I dunno, I’ve always been quick and strong and had fast reflexes and I’ve always loved animals, they just seemed to always do what I tell them.” He blinked pointedly and all the animals flew and scurried back into the tree, alarming Tom who was still leaning against it and breathing heavily. “I loved being out in the forests near where I lived, I would talk to the animals and sit in the trees. Sounds a bit weird now, but it was where I felt really at home, where I had unconditional friendship.” His eyes looked sad for a moment and I smiled as if to assure him. “Well one day I was just walking when a wolf, a really big she-wolf, appeared in front of me and just stared at me. I didn’t know what to do because I knew she was stronger and faster than me and it was pup season so she was likely to have cubs nearby but she didn’t attack. She just stared at me for a while and then I heard her voice in my head. She sounded so proud. She said ‘You are one of us’ and walked off into the trees.” He looked at the ground then. “Then I got home, a bit shaken by the whole thing but I didn’t feel any different. My mum screamed when she saw me, that was when this happened.” He gestured to his eyes. “I was 12.”

“How long ago was that?” Tom asked, between laboured breaths.

“Just over 4 years.” He said, a hint of sadness in his voice.

I walked right up to him and threw an arm over his shoulder, smiling in what I hoped was a reassuring way. “Hey that’s cool, I’m 16 too. So is that that breathless lump of flesh over there.” I gestured towards Tom who had regained enough of his composure to give me a look as sharp as a knife blade. I just grinned back at him adding, “Think you can manage the walk back to the main building?” To which he said nothing but stood fully upright and strode off towards the mass of the main building at a brisk pace. Me and Boyd looked at each other and I rolled my eyes at his retreating back before we set off in Tom’s wake.


	6. First Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> School's back in session and discoveries are being made left right and centre.

The next morning came and me, Tom and Boyd were waving goodbye to Susannah on the driveway. There were hugs all round and she said she’d send e-mails and keep in touch as often as she could. I was definitely sad to see her go after spending the last 2 weeks with her. Even Boyd, who had only met her at dinner last night and breakfast this morning, wasn’t exactly pleased to see her leaving. I knew if it was this hard on me then Tom must be breaking up. I looked at him sideways and caught him wiping his face with the back of his hand and he was still blinking back tears.

Boyd had noticed too and put a reassuring hand on Tom’s shoulder. “You alright buddy?” He asked.

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine.” Tom replied.

Boyd looked at his watch and sighed, “I have to go, I have a meeting with professor Munroe...” he blinked and looked down at his watch again in delayed horror and groaned, “three minutes ago!” I rolled my eyes at him and with that he span around and all-but leapt off towards the professor’s office. He was a bit dopey but he had the best of intentions at heart, he hadn’t said a bad word about anything or anyone since we met. I was looking forward to getting to know him better, maybe I’d even count him among my small list of friends one day.

I turned my attention back to Tom, who was still fiercely blinking back tears. Susannah’s car was almost lost to sight and as I watched, it rounded a bend and was hidden by a sharp rising hill covered in thickly grown evergreens.

Tom turned to me and tried to put on a brave smile but it cracked. I couldn’t stand to see someone I cared about looking so lost and alone, so I pulled him into a tight hug. What I didn’t expect was for him to grab on to me, like he was holding on for dear life. I felt a patch of dampness start to grow where his cheek was resting on my shoulder and I realised that this time he was the one in need of support, I had to be there for him like he’d been there for me.

We didn’t stay like that for long. Tom quickly subsided and I could feel awkwardness beginning to sidle into the hug. He stood up straight with a bit of a start and stood back from me a little. After a sniffle he brushed his eyes with the back of his hand and the corner of his mouth turned up a little, almost a smile.

I’ve always been pretty useless in this sort of situation so I smiled in what I hoped was an encouraging manner and I got an answering grin.

“Sorry, don’t really know what happened there,” he took a deep breath, “I’m o.k now.” He looked a bit withdrawn, his eyes were down and his shoulders were forward, I wasn’t sure if he was telling the whole truth. “I’m fine.” He re-iterated, I think more for his benefit than mine. It seemed to work though, his brown eyes met mine and he stood up straight and inhaled slowly and deeply, almost like a yawn.

I managed to catch myself before my eyes slid down to his chest as it expanded, keeping my eyes fixed on his. His grin spread into a smile and his shoulders shook with a brief burst of laughter.

“What?” I said.

“Nothing,” he chuckled again, “it’s just...”

“What?” I demanded.

“Nah, nothing.” He said and started off towards the mansion. “Don’t you have someone you have to meet?”

I fell into step next to him. “I’m supposed to be meeting Professor Munroe in 5 minutes, but Boyd was 5 minutes late so I guess she’ll be running late too.”

“Isn’t her office on the other side of the school though?” Tom said.

“I have no idea, I was just going to head in the direction of the staff apartments and hope inspiration struck.”

“Well, I have to see Mr. Summers and his rooms are on the same corridor, so we’ll go together. We can’t have you being late for your first pre-term meeting now can we?” I mumbled some form of agreement and we found our way to the Staff area without much trouble. 

As I was reading each of the little brass plaques on each door down the long hallway - Tom having found Mr. Summers’ rooms already - when I heard Boyd’s voice issue from nearby. I walked towards the door it seemed to come from and when it opened inwards Boyd came out backwards at a quick stumble and walked straight into me. I was nearly shoved into the opposite door but Boyd’s reflexes saved any sort of bruising. However, being held at 45 degrees with my new Professor gaping slightly at me wasn’t exactly my idea of fun, so I put my feet back under my body and freed myself from Boyd’s supporting grip whilst steadying myself.

“I’m really sorry Dean, are you o.k?”

“Yes Boyd I’m fine.” I visually checked myself over, just to check I was definitely still in one piece.

“Are you sure, I’m sorry I should’ve looked where I was going.”

“Its o.k, really. I’m o.k,” I said, then raised my eyes to his, “thanks for catching me.”

“I’m really, really sorry Dean. I need to watch what I’m doing.” He seemed to have ignored what I’d said completely. I just shook my head.

“Boyd, its o.k. You just caught him off-balance,” Professor Munroe’s voice was like a cool breeze in a heat wave, “I will see you on Monday for your first class.”

“Yes, sorry Professor, sorry Dean, sorry.” And he left in a hurry down the corridor, eyes pointed at the floor. I shook my head after him and turned to my appointment.

“Hello Professor.” I said towards the tall woman. She stood at least head and shoulders above me, and her snow white hair made stark contrast to her dark brown skin. The welcoming smile on her face made her seem even more beautiful.

“Come in Dean,” she said in that cool voice. She had an accent from somewhere outside the English speaking world, but I didn’t know where, “please, take a seat.” She indicated a comfortable looking darkwood chair facing a wide, neatly ordered desk. The room was much larger than any of the accommodation rooms I’d seen so far but was panelled in the same wood although the ceiling was a lot higher and so were the large bay windows, and there was another door in the far corner which probably led to a bedroom and bathroom. The walls were covered in shelves which had books and ornaments and everything else shoved on them. One or two of them seemed to bending in the middle under the weight of the stuff on them, and there was yet more stuff on the top of cabinets and cupboards which held yet more trinkets. Only the desk and the windowsill seemed to have survived the clutter-bomb. “Gifts,” she said, with a gesture to take in all of the stuff, “mostly. From students and friends. I can’t stand to throw things away.” Another cool smile and she picked up a generic looking blue fold-over cardboard file from a small pile of assorted folders on her desk. I recognised the handwriting on the front immediately, I’d seen it enough times: it was my old head-mistress’.

“That’s from my school, how did you get that?” I asked.

“Airmail.” It was a rather matter-of-fact answer. “Your old school was very obliging, so lets see,” she picked out my report from the end of last term. I winced slightly, remembering it a little too well. “Not so good at Math, we can soon fix that,” I groaned. I hate maths, “ah, not a fan. Right, well your English and French grades are good and everything else is coming along nicely. I’m sure you could do better though, your reports praise you more than your grades.” And she was right. I only ever put in enough effort to get a comfortable mark, I never seemed to be able to top my older brothers, so I gave up trying.

“Now, academic lessons will form the most part of your timetable. However, you will have to have specific training and testing sessions regarding your mutation.” She paused and took a slow breath, almost like a sigh. “Your mutation comes with a cost. You’re a more unique individual than most, so you have to learn to control this extra individuality for your own safety as well as for that of others. If you’re not willing to learn then you will be prevented from harming others in a less humane fashion.” She paused for a moment, and I pondered that I certainly didn’t feel very unique, and while I was generally as lazy as I could get away with I wasn’t going to make it my aim to find out what the ‘less humane’ way of doing things was. “Do you understand that?”

I nodded hurriedly, as sincerely as I could. A question suddenly sprang into my head, “um...who is it we’re taught by?”

“Ah, well that depends.” She took a breath and set herself as if preparing for a long speech. “It works just like a normal school here for academic subjects. There are certain teachers you will definitely to be taught by; myself and Professor Xavier, for example, teach subjects that all students of your age must take. There are some other teachers however that you will never be taught by unless you choose their subject.” I had guessed that much already, what I really wanted to know about was who would be teaching me to use my mutant ability. As if she had read my mind, Professor Munroe continued to speak. “Because mutations are so diverse it is almost impossible to teach groups of students at the same time. This means that every student has one-on-one training sessions with his or her assigned mentor until they get their gift well under control. In your case that will be me.” She finished with a smile which I returned in kind. I had already warmed to her, her aura of calm, collected, coolness belied the inner warmth given out by her smile; I was looking forward to our sessions already.

She opened and reached into a drawer on her side of the desk, pulling out another folder; slightly smaller and made of semi-transparent bottle green plastic. “This is the folder that contains all the information we have regarding your mutation,” there was almost nothing in there, “as you can see we haven’t got much, only what Dan and Jeff told me over the phone. We also had a student with a similar ability to you a few years ago, but she could only control electricity outside of her body. 50 000 volts could have been as lethal to her as any other person. Whereas you seem to be able to use your body as a lightning rod.” Her tone sounded slightly disapproving at that. It didn’t take much sense to realise that finding something like that out was dangerous and stupid.

“I didn’t know I was doing it,” I tried to explain, “it just happened. I’d never do something like that on purpose.” I felt highly embarrassed and had the decency to act so. I looked at my feet for a few moments and made an apologetic face.

“Of course you wouldn’t Dean.” A small smile crept into her voice and onto her face. “I’ve had to do the same myself once or twice. I don’t make a habit of it mind you.” A motherly edge crept into her tone and I couldn’t help but smile. I felt like she’d just told me some great secret, of course she hadn’t, but I felt as if she’d given me a treat in telling me that little detail. “There definitely won’t be anything of the sort happening during our sessions.”

“Now, we’ll be running all sorts of tests and simulations with you during these sessions. None of them should hurt you, so if they do then all you need to do is say the word. Most of it will be optional of course, but there are some things me and Professor Xavier identified that we feel need to be examined.” I nodded my assent and understanding; I wanted to find out all I could about my mutation. Reaching into the still-open drawer she pulled out an almost-identical semi-transparent plastic folder, in blue this time. It had more paper in it than the green one but it was still quite empty. “This is your timetable.” she said, handing the folder to me. “The school rules and also a calendar with important dates are in there as well.” She handed me the green folder as well. “You keep this one too, bring it to our training sessions and keep it safe otherwise: anything put in there is of value and importance.” I nodded.

“There should be plenty of stationery in your desk in your room along with all the books for the classes you’ll be taking.” I gave a single nod to show my continued understanding. “And I will see you on Monday afternoon. Unfortunately I’m running a little late, and I would normally like to spend a bit more time with you before our first session but I have another appointment and we’ll be meeting soon anyway.”

“O.K professor. Thank you. I’ll see you on Monday then.”

“Yes indeed, thank you Dean.” She smiled and I let myself out, walking past a young girl with big shoulders and an awkward way of standing that made her look about a foot shorter than she really was. I heard Professor Munroe welcoming her into the office, but I didn’t catch a name. I looked back towards Mr. Summers’ office and saw Tom leant against the wall on his shoulder. Before I could stop myself I was following the curve of his body from the top of his broad shoulders, down to his trim waist and his round--- what the hell was I doing? I started towards him at a sensible pace and when he turned to see who was walking up behind him he smiled which got me smiling too.

“How was Mr. Summers?” I asked.

“Yeah, he was nice.” He said and shrugged. “How was Professor Munroe?” I had stopped just short of him.

“She was great, really nice. We’ve got our first training session on Monday afternoon. When’s yours?”

“Oh erm...” he opened a red folder, his other was blue, “its on Tuesday, at 11. Just before lunch.” His timetable looked a lot fuller than mine.

“Shall we go back to our room and see what days we can do lunch and then we can go exploring.” I said.

“Yeah, we’ll see if Boyd can join us too.” 

We got back to our corridor and found Boyd’s door open. His room was much smaller than ours, barely having floor space for me and Tom to stand in, even with Boyd sat cross-legged on his bed.

“So we only get Wednesday and Thursday lunch with all three of us together?” Boyd said, “That sucks.”

“Yeah.” I agreed, “I’ve got Monday lunch by myself. You can manage with just Boyd on Mondays can’t you Tom?” He glanced and Boyd and gave him a nod and a grin. “And you’ll cope with Tuesdays by yourself?”

“Yeah...whatever. I can just grab a sandwich and eat it somewhere quiet and do some of the work I’m going to be snowed under with.” He was right. His timetable was definitely much fuller than mine. He was taking music lessons (classical piano), doing an advanced-level software design class (usually reserved for those 2 years higher) and a 2 year german course crammed into 1 year on top of his core subjects. I was only doing an extra 3 lessons a week in Spanish on top of my other stuff (just to bring me up to standard). Boyd had actual timetabled athletics classes but that wasn’t a surprise, and it was his only extra on top of the standard set. Tom smiled despite the impending mountain of homework he was bound to have thrust upon him.

“And you’ll be alright by yourself on Friday’s, right Boyd?” I asked.

“Of course! It’s right after a track meet too, so you’ll be glad you’re nowhere near me!” He replied with a smile. “You should see about joining the team Dean, you’re fast.” Nothing could have inspired me less. Being on a sports team meant training sessions on the weekend and periodic visits to other schools in the area to compete. Far too much effort for one as lazy as me.

“I’ll look into it.” I said, in a suitably non-committal fashion. “So what’s everyone’s first lesson?” I’d hardly looked at my schedule apart from the lunchtimes, let alone at Boyd and Tom’s.

“English Literature.” Stated Tom.

“American History.” Said Boyd

I glanced at my timetable. “English Literature.” I looked up into Tom’s smiling face and couldn’t help a little grin of my own.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in the grounds, wandering. Stopping every so often to talk or for Boyd to show us another animal he liked; he seemed to like every one more than the last.

Monday morning came and I found myself sat on the back row of three, on Tom’s right hand side. Another student was sat to Tom’s left and the girl with the awkward look to her from Miss. Munroe’s office was sat on my right.

The teacher hadn’t appeared yet so I turned to the girl to my right. “Hi there, my name’s Dean.” I said, offering what I hoped was a warm smile.

“Um...hi. I’m...T...T...Theresa.” she sounded almost apologetic, and smiled a little crookedly without quite meeting my eyes.

“When did you come to Xavier’s then?” I asked.

“L...last year.” Again a smile that was a notch short of apology. “During the spring...that’s when my...mutation started to...to show.”

“And erm, what’s your mutation?” I hoped that wasn’t too nosy, I thought most mutants would want to share stories about their powers.

“Oh its nothing...nothing special.” She shrugged her broad shoulders -quite an expansive gesture- and looked at her hands which were now clasped on her desk. I could have sworn she was blushing. I was about to ask if she was o.k when the door was thrown open, bouncing off the wall behind me and admitting someone who brushed past my arm and left a raw scent in my nostrils and my eyes following a firm set of buttocks as they headed to the front of the classroom. For some reason I wrenched my eyes away from the bouncing butt and looked to Tom, whose head swung to face me just as mine did to face him. He looked surprised and also concerned...about what I couldn’t tell. I realised I was staring and my eyes found the floor. I realised I should be paying some kind of attention and looked up at the newly arrived teacher.

“I’m not your teacher.” he said in a gruff, American voice. “I’m just here to give you an assignment.” He turned towards the blackboard and began scrawling something on it with a piece of chalk.

He was stood in one spot, facing a blackboard, hardly moving. He still put me in mind of a coiled spring, or some kind of big cat waiting to pounce. He put the chalk down.

“That’s it. You can do what you want.” And he walked out again past me, every step was made with the assurance and grace of a man who knew exactly how every fibre of his abundant muscle worked. Every eye in the room watched him go and then as one we swivelled to face the board. There were muted groans all round as we read in an untidy scrawl that we had a whole book to finish before next week’s lesson. I scribbled a note in my planner and gathered my stuff, Tom did the same and followed me out of the door.

I realised I didn’t know what to do next: where does one spend their free time anyway? I turned to voice the question to Tom and almost bashed into Theresa.

“Th...there’s a nice bit of the grounds hardly anyone goes to if you...you want to start the reading?” Theresa put in, again almost hitting apologetic in tone.

“Sounds good.” Tom said, looking to me for confirmation.

“Yup, sounds like a plan.” I said. We followed behind Theresa out of the main doors, a sharp left and then behind another slightly squat building, through the passage between the squat building and another structure that looked more like a hill until you saw the breezeblocks in the side up close and its hidden-but-definite lines. Tom was just complaining about standing on a rock and Theresa was apologising in earnest, when all of a sudden both buildings fell away and we were stood in a small grassy clearing, closed off on 2 sides by trees, on one side by a solid-looking balustrade which overlooked fields and forests rolling off into distance-fogged hills and pastures and on the remaining side was the buildings behind us.

I walked over to the high wall and draped myself over it, lapping up the view. It could’ve almost been home. Not home in suburbia, but home where I’d been born. Going back to my grandmother’s house up in the hills was always accompanied by at least 3 hours of leaning out of an upstairs window and looking at everything I could see. Just drinking it all in with my eyes like it could all suddenly disappear.

My feet were suddenly lifted off the ground and my balance tipped so I was almost going to go over the fence, down a 30 foot drop. Hands latched onto my hips. “Oh! Saved your life!”

“If you hadn’t lifted me up in the first place that statement might be worth something.” I replied over my shoulder, holding onto the wall to prevent further brushes with long and painful falls.

I let my charge build a bit round my waist and Tom jumped back shaking his hands. I grinned at him.

Theresa had already sat down, leaning back against a rock with the book open on her knees. I gave Tom a warning look and hitched up my jeans then walked over and sat down next to Theresa with my book and started to read. Tom sat on top of the rock, yoga-style and settled down to reading. Before I’d even finished the first chapter the bell rang for next lesson and Tom said he had to run because the German room was a 5 minute walk. Theresa and I made our way back to the main building, we both had a free period followed by a 15 minute break, but then she had a double training session with Ms Munroe before first lunch, whereas I was into my first catching up sessions in Spanish. On the plus side it looked like I wouldn’t be eating alone on Mondays.

I met Theresa in the lunch hall at 10 to 1. She looked a bit worn out. “Are you alright?”

She looked up at me as if seeing me for the first time and said, “Yeah, sorry...I just, err...I’m a bit...its hard work. T-training, that is.”

I was a little apprehensive all of a sudden. “Did they make you work really hard?”

“Oh no, well...yes. A bit. It was for a long time...you know?” I didn’t. I was beginning to get butterflies, what if I couldn’t hack it? What was it Ms. Munroe had said about “less humane methods”?

“You’re hungry then? Shall we get some food?” Theresa nodded and we made our way over to the trays of warming food. I couldn’t keep my curiosity down. “What did they make you do?” I asked.

“Nothing hard,” she must’ve sensed the apprehension in my voice, “just...turn my power on and off...really fast, and then keep it on for...for a long time.” She paused to take slices of bread and some butter from one of the cold trays. “Just trying to gauge my limits. But, its like a switch. On or off, you know?”

“What’s like a switch?” I was too busy wondering if they’d have me plugged into the mains, shocking me for an hour and a half, to think before I asked such an obvious question.

“Erm...my mutation.” She said it almost as a whisper.

“Oh yeah, of course. So...what is your mutation?” I asked, as tentatively as possible.

“Its like this,” she showed me her right hand, “on or off.” She said. As she said it her hand turned silvery-black and back to normal skin again. “They don’t know what it is.” It looked like her hand was being dipped in some kind of liquid metal and then having it cleaned off again, but almost instantaneously.

“You mean they don’t know what that metal is?”

She shook her head, looking a bit puzzled herself, “They’re not even sure its metal.” She rubbed her now normal-skinned palm, grimacing a little. “Its conductive. Dr. McCoy says its not dense enough for metal.” She shrugged. Definitely a discussion-ending gesture from Theresa. We found a table and sat and ate our lunches, chatting about my Spanish teacher (already shaping up to be a homework-dealer from hell) and our English assignment. All of a sudden a bell rang for quarter past 2. Time for my first training session. My timetable said to meet at Professor Munroe’s office, so I made my way there after saying goodbye to Theresa and her wishing me good luck (which made the butterflies in my stomach turn into angry hornets for just a moment before I quieted them).

I found myself stood outside the door reading the little brass plaque and trying to figure out how to knock as quietly as possible. As I was summoning the courage to make a third attempt I heard footsteps to my right and saw Ms. Munroe sweeping down the corridor. She was smiling at me and I smiled back, a touch nervously.

“Sorry I’m late Dean, have you been waiting long?” I shook my head. “Good, I’ll just put these things away and pick up what we’ll need.” She opened her study door with a key from her pocket and motioned me to follow her inside. I stood near the door whilst she put the folders and books she was carrying back into her desk and took just 1 file out of the other side of her desk that was the same bottle green as the one I was carrying. “Well then, are you ready?” I nodded. “Follow me.” I was beginning to feel the nerves again as she led me along dark panelled corridors to another of the concealed lifts. She said her name to thin air and a panel above the lift controls slid back to reveal more lift controls. She pressed a button and the lift went down. The panel slid back into place and looked so inconspicuous that even seeing through the panel to the electric current in the buttons and circuitry behind it, I couldn’t see an outline or even a crack.

The lift stopped after a brief interval and Ms. Munroe swept out into a completely square corridor. It was dark ahead of us at first but as we walked, passing dark offshoots to both sides, the corridor lit up for us. The corridor behind us retreated into darkness as we moved. Following my teacher left and then right soon after we came to a door. Simple and square in design like everything else down here Ororo turned to a panel of lights on the wall to the left of the door and said her name again. The door opened and I followed her into the large room beyond. High-ceilinged, darkly decorated and rectangular, with control panels in random places around the walls and a 2nd door on the right wall which I guessed led up to the viewing gallery above the room on the right side, which was either behind dark glass or the gallery itself was in darkness.

“This is our practice room for today,” she stated, “I chose this one because its extremely well insulated.” She wasn’t wrong. Even the door barely let me see through to the electric current outside and above us. “A lot of our practice rooms have certain special designs, like this one.” I nodded. Different mutations, different needs. It made sense. “I’m going to go and get changed. Whilst we’re in the practice room you should call me Storm. Its important to keep your own identity separate from your mutation; its just a part of you, its not who you are.” I nodded, not really taking in the importance of the statement. Ms. Mu-erm – Storm – walked over to a control panel and pressed a few buttons. A chunk of wall slid out, there was a suit on a hangar. Storm unzipped and removed the plain white jacket she was wearing and slipped on the jacket, it looked to be made of heavy leather but it was synthetic looking at the same time. She took off her shoes and took out the heavy looking black boots, possibly of the same material of the jacket. She slipped the trousers on over the top of her knee-length, skin-tight cargo pants and donned and did up the boots. Finally she took the similar-material gloves out of their little built in glovebox and put them on too.

“Much better. Now, before Hank gets here – that is...Dr. McCoy - shall we get warmed up?” I immediately had images of her plugging me into the mains again. Some of it must have shown on my face because she shook her head and smiled. “Nothing too strenuous to begin with, I promise.” That help me relax a bit.

“You used your hands to call down the lightning bolt on yourself, right?” I nodded. “Well lets get your arms limbered up.” I followed her through a simple work out for arms and went on to something complicated with fingers, apparently that was important for her as she tended to use her gestures to help her control electricity whenever she was using it. She said it wasn’t actually the gestures that did it, but they helped.

As I got another one of the hand exercises wrong, nearly tying my fingers in a knot, Storm started to laugh. I laughed along with her as it was infectious and strangely soothing. At that moment I felt a surge of current behind me and turned to see the doors begin to express open. The biggest and above all bluest man I had ever seen walked in to the room, wearing a white lab coat and smiling. “Good good, here already. Sorry I’m late, got held up with the Professor.” I heard the capital letter on Professor slide into place in my head.

Storm nodded, “This is Dean Roberts. Dean, this is Dr. Hank McCoy.” Dr. McCoy grimaced at that.

“Storm please, Hank will do. Dean, pleased to meet you.” He extended a hand. I took it and attempted to shake. I may as well have tried moving a cruise liner. Hank shook my hand. He held it for a little longer than I felt necessary, especially as his grip was like a vise. “Very nice control, barely felt a tingle. Very nice.” He started scribbling on a sheet of paper on his clipboard. I looked to Storm for guidance, but she just smiled.

“Right. First, lets see where you get this electricity from, shall we?” He went to the wall and pressed some buttons on a panel, sliding out a pair of goggles which he put on. He got them adjusted and turned to face me, looking a bit like an army covert ops agent. He jumped. “Goodness!” He paused and removed the goggles. “Storm?” He handed her the goggles and she glanced through them. She just nodded and handed them back.

“Feeling stressed?” Storm asked. Dr. McCoy put the goggles back on. “You seem to be harbouring quite a bit more electricity than most people, or rather most small towns, could ever use." I looked at my shoes and shrugged.

“I’m a bit nervous about what I’m going to have to do, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to do it.” I said, a little embarrassed.

Storm put her hand on my shoulder, “We won’t do anything you don’t want to, o.k? Just say so if you don’t feel comfortable.” She smiled again and I felt my insides calm down back to something resembling normal, butterflies almost gone. I nodded my agreement.

“Ah. Very good.” Dr. McCoy began scribbling furiously again. “Much more stable, just like that...it seems your mood affects your standing charge. Amazing how you keep it all so contained though, and it going up and down like that all the time...very good...very good.” His voice trailed off and he continued to scribble. I looked at my mentor, as I liked to think of her, feeling confused bordering on bewildered. She smiled at me comfortingly and then turned to Dr. McCoy, putting on an 'here-we-go-again' resigned rictus. It would be a tiring hour and a half.


	7. First Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levitation and the art of bedtime.

Trudging back to my room from Ms. Munroe’s office my legs felt heavy. My whole body felt wrung out. I’d never had quite such an intense workout in my life and I’d barely moved. I pushed open the door and collapsed face-first onto my bed almost instantly. It felt so good. I lay there for a bit, with my eyes closed, wondering how I was going to go about tackling the foothills of the mountain that was my Spanish homework. Just resting my eyes for a bit.

* * *

I woke up with a start. My eyes sprang open and I could hear someone behind me trying to make as little noise as possible. I wasn’t awake enough yet to register their electrical signature, my mutant ability seemed to wake up slower than Tom did on a Sunday. I built up a bit of spare charge and got ready to give whoever was sneaking about in mine and Tom’s room a nasty shock. Then I realised I was an idiot and it must be Tom. I was about to roll onto my back and say hi when I felt a pressure from my neck down to the back of my knees. I reacted on recently developed instinct and threw out my charge against the pressure, which lifted off my back but was still fighting my effort to lift it. I all-but flipped over and found myself looking into Tom’s surprised eyes a fair few inches above mine. I looked down towards my legs and sure enough Tom was suspended above me, head to foot, parallel to my body.

I looked back into his still very-surprised eyes and couldn’t help myself. I burst out laughing. I pulled up as much as I could muster and pushed harder into the oblong of pressure I could still feel which was from Tom’s neck down to his knees. He started to wobble upwards. I pushed. He lifted upwards again. I kept pushing, absolutely delighted to see the surprise in his eyes rapidly spread to his mouth, which had formed a perfect “O” by this point. I was still laughing. He started to wobble again so I pulled up some reserves and shoved it into the block underneath him and he stabilised. My laughter was starting to dissolve into mild hysterics and with the amount of power I was using, I could almost feel my eyes turning that vivid shade of ever-changing blue. The door to the room squeaked open and Boyd poked his head round the door to see what was going on. He looked at me confused then looked up at Tom and gasped audibly.

“I didn’t know you could fly Tom!” He exclaimed, coming in and shutting the door behind him.

“Neither did I!” He all-but yelped. This redoubled my laughter. “Let me down Dean! Slow, please!”

“Wait, how’re you doing that? Are you doing that Dean?” I nodded, giggling. 

“Can’t you see it?” Tom and Boyd both shook their heads. “There’s a lot of it, I mean really I’m using a lot. Quite a lot. You can’t see anything?” Again, heads shook.

“You can’t see mine and I can’t see yours.” Said Tom. “I can see mine, it’s a big blue block of...well...blue. But you can’t see it. I’ve never been able to see yours either, just feel it, mostly.”

“Weird.” I thought about that for a few moments. “O.K, slowly.” I began to let Tom descend. A ruler’s length from me I couldn’t resist, I let go completely. Tom fell the last centimetres and his negativity must’ve turned off in shock because he landed right on top of me with a small yell muffled by my pillow. I hugged him tight and I felt my whole body tingle. I convinced myself he flared his negative aura, that it wasn’t a different sort of tingle.

He pulled his face out of the pillow and shoved his face in mine. I definitely felt his tingle all over, pushing me down into the mattress. I laughed and started to push back but Boyd coughed nervously from the door.

He said “Err...”

Suddenly I felt acutely embarrassed and used conventional methods to push Tom off and sit up. Tom leapt over to his bed and stated: “The reason I woke you up was because dinner started half an hour ago, you want to eat?”

“Yes. Food.” Anything to avoid the impending scaling of my Spanish homework.

“What about you Boyd? Eaten?”

He shook his head. “Only just got back from the track, it was only an intro, no training today.”

We went for dinner and met Theresa in the hall, she had already sat down with a couple of other students so we sat and chatted and ate for a while. Using stealth tactics Tom somehow got me to return to my room to the pile of Spanish I needed to tackle. I sighed and sat down at my desk. Verb tables, easy but dull, do them first, here we go...

* * *  
2 hours later I looked at the 150 word essay I’d just written on “The Weekend”. It wasn’t going to win any prizes, but it’d do for a minimum mark of 20 out of 25.

Tom was behind me working on something, his pen still making noises as it scratched across the page. I made a small theatrical performance of putting my stuff away, making sure every pen was replaced in my pencil case as noisily as possible. To my annoyance Tom completely ignored my little play and just as I was thinking to myself that he was no fun at all, he said “You finished it then?” With a hint of smugness. I got up out of my chair rather more theatrically than necessary.

“Yes,” I said, slightly annoyed at his arbitrary smugness, “all done and dusted. Nothing left to do but get washed and go to bed.” I grinned, walking over to said bed. He’d probably be up for hours yet!

He turned to face me, wearing the biggest grin I’d seen on any living being. “Me too, about half an hour ago. But I drew this whilst I was waiting for you to finish.” I felt my own face fall; not a pleasant feeling.

I realised he’d sat there that extra half an hour to make sure I sat there too. Bubbles of anger tried to rise in my chest but they bounced off my brain, which was currently too busy focusing all its attention on the drawing of Boyd from earlier, surrounded by animals, stood under the tree in the grounds. It was a bit cartoony, but all the more cute for it. And it was only a pencil sketch but it looked more real than any potato-people I’d ever drawn.

“Is there no limit to your talent?” I said, dripping sarcasm all over the carpet.

“Nope.” Tom stood up and raised an eyebrow at me. “So talented I surprise myself sometimes.” My overlying vision of electrical currents seemed to dim, but I realised what Tom must’ve been doing. Building up what charge I had and forcing it outwards I felt it nudge against Tom’s negative barrier. He’d wrapped it right around me. I folded my arms and looked daggers at him. He tried to push my charge back in, I pushed out. It was like arm wrestling. I found myself having to concentrate harder every second. I stole a bit of extra current out of the walls, just a trickle out of the torrent, but enough so that it got easier by the second to hold my barrier up. I grinned and Tom’s eyes widened, probably wondering where I was getting the extra oomph from, I could feel his barrier getting further away.

I looked down at Tom and stuck my tongue out. Then I realised I’d looked down at Tom. I looked at my feet, which were, by now, a good 6 inches off the ground. My stomach lurched and my field disappeared, I felt the tingle brush against my outlying regions as I dropped to the floor, landing a little unsteadily. No wonder Tom’s eyes had widened just a second ago. I looked at the floor again, just to make sure I was in contact with it and looked up at Tom. He was still looking a little shocked.

“That little trick works in reverse then?” I said. He nodded. “We have to stop play-fighting like this, we’ll end up breaking something.” He nodded. “Bed time, I think.” He nodded again.

I got first use of the bathroom and was in bed within 15 minutes, reading a book with Tom’s toothbrush as background noise. Tom walked out of the bathroom still fully clothed. “Didn’t change into your PJ’s?” I asked. I was wearing a rather fetching set of blue and white stripy pyjamas which nicely covered me, head to foot.

“Too hot for PJs.” He said and took his shirt off over his head, throwing it on the end of his bed. He looked really tanned in the low, yellowy light from my bedside lamp. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the way his chest was the right shape in all the right places and how the muscles on his arms moved when he did something as simple as lift a t-shirt over his head. I was screaming at myself to stop but I couldn’t convince my eyes to look back at the page I was reading.

I realised Tom was looking at me, looking at him. I met his eyes for a second and just shrugged. A lot of feeling went into that shrug. He must have got some of that feeling because he reached down and held my free hand. The tingle was definitely there but it was overridden by the warm feeling that was enveloping the same hand. Tom let go and the tingle died, but the warmth stayed. I closed my eyes and took a quiet breath. Whatever was going on I wasn’t ready to put words to it.

Tom slipped his trousers off and jumped into bed, I made myself look at my book while he dropped his trousers but I didn’t read it, I was focused entirely on not looking at Tom’s almost-naked form.

I looked over at him when he had climbed into bed. He’d put his reading glasses on and had picked up a massive volume with a title on the front that meant nothing to me. “Looks like a fun read.” I said

“For European History. It isn’t as bad as it looks though, I did all this stuff back home anyway.”

I shrugged and turned back to my book. Eventually Tom put his book away, took his glasses off and turned off his bedside light. “Night Dean, see you in the morning.”

“Good night.” I yawned, putting my book away and turning my light off. I rolled over to face the window, letting my eyes adjust to the moonlight. There was a lot of things I’d felt today that I hadn’t quite processed yet. I let my mind wander for a bit, pretending I was soaring out into the moonlit grounds, just breathing and feeling the air in my new home. Tom stirred noisily behind me and I turned over to see what the fuss was about. He had shifted so that the thick sheet was around his midriff, exposing his skin to the moon. I turned fully over so I was facing him. I didn’t know how to think through what I was feeling for him, let alone say it out loud.

* * *

I woke up with a start in a pitch black room. I could hear Tom’s breathing. Why had I woken up? I looked towards the window and saw nothing. The door...nothing there. The bathroom door...nothing there either. Without moving my head I tried to look towards the floor. Nothing but darkness there either.

Suddenly something nudged me in the arm. Nothing was near my arm to touch me. Something touched my arm again, softer this time, and I felt a tingle. I knew that feeling. I looked at Tom again, he was still fast asleep, moving only slightly with his rhythmic breaths. The feeling spread up my arm and onto my shoulder, moving across my collarbone to my other shoulder. The feeling swept down my chest, making me shudder involuntarily. It slowed at my navel, almost coming to a stop. I knew what would happen next and didn’t know whether to stop it or not. I remembered how it had felt for that second on the plane.

“Tom.” I almost shouted, levering myself up in bed.

He snorted awake. “Whu?” I hadn’t planned this far ahead.

“You were...talking. In your sleep.” He rolled to face me.

“Uh?” Was all the response I got.

“Sorry. You sounded...distressed. Bad dream?” I said.

“Nah. Good. Good dream.” He smiled sleepily at me and rolled onto his back again, instantly falling asleep. I lay still for a moment, just in case, but the feeling around my navel didn’t return. I rolled to face the window and tried to think calm, sleepy thoughts. If it hadn’t been for all the training I’d done earlier I don’t think I would’ve been able to get back to sleep.

* * *

I woke to the alarm Tom had set. It was 8:00am and I had an hour to get up and dressed and breakfasted before my first lesson. I swung my legs out of the bed to find Tom sat on the edge of his bed, still only boxer-clad, rubbing his eyes and yawning enormously. My eyes landed on his crotch without me telling them too. They took in everything else too, but his underwear held my attention. He wasn’t looking. I told myself it was o.k and took in what was in front of me. For the first time I noticed little things. The handful random dark freckles or moles or whatever they were that were on his chest. The dark hair that was just getting thick enough to be noticeable in the dip between his pecs and was working its way down his stomach to meet with the trail of already thick hair extending from his navel into his boxers.

I looked back at the floor between our beds, embarrassed at myself and couldn’t stop myself noticing how muscular his legs were, covered thickly with short, dark hairs. Funny how his legs were so toned yet he couldn’t run faster than I could jog with my skinny beanpole legs. I made a decision and went to stand up. Unfortunately Tom made the same decision at the same time and I ended up nearly getting head butted in the chin.

He grabbed onto my arms to steady himself. “Oops, sorry, ha.” He was about 3 inches from my body. His morning hair was seriously evident and I noticed it too. I wanted to ruffle it.

“I’m first in the bathroom.” I said and grabbed some fresh clothes out of the wardrobe. Tom made me squeeze past him instead of shuffling out of the way. He made a big show of stretching and flexing every available muscle in the process, I couldn’t help watching. I got the feeling he was enjoying this. He flopped down onto his bed and as I walked past I ruffled his hair. Walking straight into the bathroom, I caught myself in the mirror wearing the biggest grin I’ve ever seen on my own face.

* * *

It was Tuesday, so lunch was just me and Boyd, I bumped into him on the ground floor corridor when he was coming back from the history room. Or rather, he bumped into me.

“Sorry Dean! Sorry!” He blurted.

“Its o.k Boyd, just...slow down a little bit?” He’d come hurtling down the stairs at 70 miles per hour again. He had all-but knocked Theresa over and I’d tripped over her outflung leg, nearly landing myself a faceplant on the hardwood floor.

“Are you having lunch with us too Theresa?” Boyd asked.

She shook her head “I have English, see you guys at dinner?” We said we’d aim for dinner at about half 8 and me and Boyd hurried to lunch.

“I have a history essay for next week. An essay already!” Boyd didn’t seem pleased.

“I’ve got some serious maths to do. And I’ve still got a Spanish catchup lesson this afternoon, and I know I’ll get another mountain of work.” I was resigned to it already, but it didn’t mean I had to like it. The cafeteria wasn’t too full so Boyd and I got through lunch pretty quickly and I even started on my maths before going off to double Spanish, dreading the impending Everest-esque homework I’d get.

Trudging back along the corridor to my room I was wondering whether to tackle the maths or the Spanish. I opened the door to the room and forgot all about homework. Tom was stepping out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist. Hair still wet and dripping down his chest, getting caught in all the bumps and ridges. He looked up and smiled at me and I realised I was stood in the doorway, holding the door handle. I hurriedly shuffled into the room and closed the door behind me.

“Just did a bit of a workout, had a free period last lesson so I thought I’d see what the gym was like.” His stomach looked visibly more defined, which was pretty shocking. I could do situps and pushups all day for a week and you wouldn’t notice my muscles getting any bigger. Harder and stronger they would definitely be, but with no visible difference. “They have weights up to 3 metric tonnes in there. I saw Theresa lifting the 1 tonne like it was hardly there!”

“I think that’s because she’s made of metal.” I said, somewhat dazed.

“She looks like skin and bone to me.” Tom laughed, casually shifting his towel. I watched a single drop of water roll off his forehead and down the side of his face, it traced the line of his left pec and continued on down his abs where it got trapped in the hair below his navel.

“No, I mean her thing. Mutant thing.” I waved my arms vaguely to try and use gestures to back up my speech. My trusty mouth was failing me at the sight of Tom’s dripping form. I tried to collect my thoughts and failed, instead concentrating on the dark hairs that covered his forearms.

“She can turn into metal?” He asked.

“Yeah, ‘cept its not metal, s’what she said.” I wasn’t making any sense, but my mouth wasn’t properly connected to my brain.

“Should I just take this off?” He put a thumb in the towel’s makeshift waistband.

I actually paused. “Oh no, no-o.”

“Well I’m going to have to anyway, I need to put some underwear on.” He started to pull against the towel in earnest. I thought my eyes were going to pop out of my head. I could feel them widening and couldn’t do anything about it. Oh damn, I’d blown it. There was nothing else for it.

“Be right back.” I blurted and made a swift exit. I could’ve sworn Tom started to chuckle. I walked to the other end of the corridor and looked out into the grounds for a few minutes. When I thought enough time had passed I wandered back to number 363, hoping that Tom had got himself covered up. A treacherous little voice somewhere in the back of my head was secretly hoping I’d walk in just in time to get an eye full, I squashed the thought as hard as I could then I turned the handle and pushed.

To the relief of the majority of my body, Tom was dressed in a loose t-shirt and some old jeans. He smirked at me as I walked back in. I looked as many daggers as I could, straight at him. He knew he was doing this to me and he was enjoying it. So am I, thought that treacherous little part of my brain, before I could stop it.

I sat down at my desk, squeezing past him without touching him, and started to work straight away on the maths I’d begun earlier. Tom sat down behind me and started work as well. A while later there was a shy knock at the door.

“Come in Theresa.” I said and she opened the door.

“Hey, um. Its 20 past 8 and...well, I thought you might like to go to dinner together?”

“Yeah sure, let me just finish up here.” I said, gesturing to my work on my desk. I was nearly through today’s Spanish. “Come in, pull up a bed, make yourself comfortable. I’ll only be 2 more minutes.”

Tom and Theresa chatted whilst I finished and as I was putting my pen down Boyd pushed on the open door.

“Dinner time?” He asked.

“I’m definitely hungry.” Said Tom. He was hungry quite a lot, I noticed.

“Well let’s go then.” I said, putting the last of my papers away in my file.

Dinner was simple but healthy choices. Tom ate enough mashed potato to sink a battleship. Boyd was freshly showered and even more ravenous than Tom; he’d just had an athletics session out in the grounds. After Boyd had eaten more food than me, Tom and Theresa put together we trudged back to our respective rooms, leaving Theresa in the lift and Boyd outside number 322, trying to remember where he’d left the key.

I opened the door to our room and sighed as I started to move towards my desk and the remaining work I had to do. My progress was hampered by Tom coming up behind me and wrapping his arms around me in a bear hug, flattening my arms to my sides. I locked up. I felt my breath catch in my throat and almost entered a blind panic. I realised this wasn’t at all concurrent with whatever it was I’d figured out last night. Something was going on and I needed to start embracing it. Literally in this case.

I let my shoulders relax and the rest of me followed. Tom put his chin on my left shoulder and eased his arms further down my chest. I heard him take a deep breath. I let out the breath I’d been holding. My whole body felt warm and, strangely, safe.

“You should grow your hair.” He said.

“Where did that come from?” I replied. He unlocked his arms from around my torso and gently turned me round to face him. He was smiling.

“I think a little bit more hair would suit you. Something to play with.” He was still smiling and scanning the edges of my face. I ran my hands over my head, the barely-long-enough-to-be-called-a-haircut style wasn’t what I’d ever wanted. But then I hadn’t really wanted anything special done with my hair. My mum just used to sit me down and use the hair clippers whenever she thought it was getting too long to look tidy. I frowned at that. I didn’t even realise I’d been smiling until I stopped.

My smile returned again soon, in full force, when I realised I could do what I wanted now. Not just with my hair either. Of course I could! There were a hundred little things I’d love to change now that I could. I didn’t have to have the red toothbrush any more, I could have any colour I liked! I didn’t have to wear the clothes she bought me and the shoes she chose for me. I mean I was there for those purchases, but if she didn’t like it I didn’t get it. Suddenly I was looking forward to growing a mop of hair. And I knew it would be a mop, whenever it got longer than 2 inches it would start to do its own thing. Still being pretty straight, odd bits would flick out to the side. I’d seen pictures of me as a 2 year old when my mum didn’t have my sisters and their hair to play with, it had been messy but cute, even though I did say so myself.

“You agree then?” Tom said. I think I smiled even wider.

“I’m even going to choose my own underwear!” I said. I’d always wanted to wear boxers, boxer-briefs were uncomfortable on hot days, much too tight for my liking. Tom looked a bit confused.

“O.k...” he said, a little hesitantly.

I shook my head. “I mean, I can choose for myself now.” I grinned again. “I could even have a green flannel!” I’d always preferred green.

Tom spluttered a confused laugh and agreed with me that yes, I could, if I so chose, obtain and utilise a flannel of a green persuasion. I hit him for making fun of me.

“Spanish first though?” He said. My heart sank a little, but I nodded. Spanish first. I’d done most of it though. I sat down at my desk whilst Tom spread out on his bed, reading the same European History book from last night. I finished and looked at the clock, it was only just half past 9. Which was good because I didn’t think I’d get to bed for a while, still being quite excited. I felt like jumping up and down on it, not lying in it. I must have been vibrating on the spot or something because Tom said. “You want to do something before bed?”

That small part of my brain was jumping up and down trying to get my attention again, it had something to say but I stuck tape over its mouth after the first syllable. “Any ideas?” I asked.

“Run until it gets dark? Or should I say jog. At my pace.” He paused. “Not exactly the most exciting thing, but you’ll be tired enough to sleep by the end of it.” He closed his book and stood up. “Got any shorts? And a t-shirt you don’t mind sweating in?” I did. We changed, but I kept my back diplomatically turned and told the small voice in my head to go and sit in the corner and be quiet.

We walked out of one of the many entrances onto the grounds. Me wearing the only pair of shorts I owned and an old grey t-shirt, Tom in a pair of proper running shorts and a sleeveless blue vest. I was wearing some old Adidas trainers I kept for messy work and Tom had his slightly less battered Reeboks on. I told him to set the pace seeing as he was the slowpoke and he took it as somewhat of a challenge and set off at quite a brisk jog.

20 minutes later Tom’s stamina was starting to win over my easy loping strides. I was using less energy but he had more reserves than I did. Or wait, did he? I was tired as anything but I took some current out of one of the wires running around the outside of the mansion that powered the wall lights, which weren’t switched on yet. I forced the charge down into my legs and into the straining muscles. The burn of the lactic acid receded a bit, then as I left it there it began to disappear faster and faster until my legs felt completely free of the burn. I began to jog again in earnest.

A further 15 minutes on Tom’s impressive stamina was starting to wane, but now I was borrowing current from all sorts of sources, just a drip here and a drop here but enough so that I kept increasing the amount that I was putting into my legs and had started to explore the possibility of putting it in other places; my diaphragm, my lungs, even (tentatively) into my heart. I was concentrating so closely on my own internal voltage that a few times I nearly forgot to turn with Tom or avoid flowerbeds. I stopped borrowing current and just left it as it was. It was easier to just leave it working, ticking over, than it was to keep it changing and adding more. It was starting to get properly dark and Tom said between panting breaths, “Shall we...stop soon...its getting...darker.”

“I could go on like this for ages!” I said, completely clearly. “In fact...” and that was it. I started to go faster, pushing my legs to pick up the speed. I kept going faster and faster and kept pushing until I was sure I must be running as fast as ever but I just didn’t feel remotely like I needed to slow down, or even stop speeding up. So I went faster. And faster. And I ran straight past the edge of the mansion and out into the acreage around the lake. I ran round to the left as I approached, always speeding up and pushing to go even harder. I was surprised my legs weren’t complaining even a little bit, but I kept up the charge I had, pumping it through my body.

I’d rounded half the lake already and was still accelerating. My feet were starting to heat up so I splashed through the shallows a few times, it didn’t even slow me down. I was all the way around the lake and I saw Tom stood back by the edge of the house, watching. Suddenly, I realised I’d have to stop. I told my legs to slow down and they started to obey. I slowed and slowed and slowed until I was barely going at a jog and I let my excess voltage earth itself as my feet started to fall, one after the other, at a more sensible speed.

I got to Tom and he was looking at me with a mixture of shock and exhaustion on his face. “Cheat.” He said, between still-laboured breaths.

“Well, yes.” It must’ve been obvious I was tapping into my mutation just a little.

“Join the track team.” He said, trying to regain breath at the same time.

“I’m not sure they encourage that sort of thing...however, I don’t think I should stop moving just yet.” I was almost right at him and I chose to continue walking past, at quite a brisk pace. My legs still felt pumped full of adrenalin and blood and I thought if I stopped them moving now they may very well freeze up.

He groaned but followed, trying to keep up. “Aren’t you even a little bit tired?”

“Um...” I thought about it. Physically no, my body felt pumped and ready. Mentally though, I felt like my brain had been getting a workout. My mind at least would be ready for sleep by the time my bodily fluids returned to their normal levels. “Yes. Tired enough to sleep, at least.” I felt the sweat that had formed on my forehead cooling in the evening breeze and lifted up the waist of my t-shirt to wipe it.

I slowed to a more leisurely pace and Tom was able to walk beside me, I lowered my t-shirt to wipe my neck and Tom was looking sidelong at my stomach. The trail of hair I’d started to develop from my bellybutton into my shorts wasn’t as good as Tom’s but he was definitely looking at it. And compared to his, my abs were all-but non-existent, but he was still looking. I let my shirt drop another inch. His eyes actually shifted downwards. I told myself off for teasing him, but realised I was enjoying it as much as he was. Again I thought to myself that there was no reason not to be o.k with this.

I let my t-shirt drop and made sure I was looking forwards. I saw Tom’s head move up in my peripheral vision, as if to check if I had caught him looking. I looked down at our proceeding feet and grinned as he unthinkingly matched steps with me. I moved closer to him and gently butted into his shoulder. He smiled briefly and returned the light shove as we rounded the side wall of the mansion and came into view of the main entrance and driveway. All lit up it looked so pleasant that I felt a warm feeling spreading over my entire frame despite the cool evening. I fought down an urge to hold his hand as we walked up the front stairs and into the entrance hall, inhaling deeply and smelling the grass, the fresh air, the lingering pine smell of the nearby forests and over all of that, the smell of Tom.


	8. Power Play

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which one tingle is replaced by another.

I woke up and could feel the sun through my eyelids. I risked opening one eye and groaned at the sudden, burning influx of light. I rolled my face into the pillow and muttered for a bit, which seemed to help. I rolled all the way over so I was facing away from the window, but almost falling out of the single bed. I risked one eye again and was rewarded with an eyeful, not of bright sunlight, but of Tom’s right arm. His arm was draping onto the floor from the low bed, I followed the arm up as it got wider and led onto his broad back, then down as it tapered towards his waist and...I stopped myself before I got too carried away. I wanted to get out of bed unashamedly after all. I returned my gaze to his head, his hair was contriving to look even more ruffle-able in its bed-messed state. His open mouth was half-squashed on his pillow and his lips looked softer and fuller than ever. 

I checked the clock, hoping for another 3 minutes to look at Tom’s messy hair. But it was 7:59 and any second now the alarm would be going off. I sat up in bed and turned to face Tom, still wreathed in my duvet. I sat and watched his back rise and fall with each slow breath and was just contemplating going and getting some cold water as a bonus alarm, when the clock flicked over to 8:00am; the radio turned on and Tom snorted, twitched and gurgled his way into life. He was seemingly unable to make a standing start on waking up, unlike me. I thought once more about a glass of water to the cranium.

Tom rolled over, stretching as he did and flexing every muscle on his arms and chest in the process. I sat in my duvet-nest and put on a “you should be awake” disapproving face whilst secretly enjoying the show. Tom looked at me through half-closed eyes from his prone position on his pillow. He looked about to say something then yawned massively instead.

“You’re up then.” He said.

“For a whole minute now.” I replied.

“Not washed and dressed yet?” He asked.

“Nope.” I said. I felt I should illustrate this point and stood up, leaving my duvet to fall back. I had decided to just do pyjama bottoms last night as it was quite warm in our small room. “To the bathroom!” I struck a pose in what I imagined to be a stereotypical pioneer fashion and strode over-animatedly towards the bathroom door only to find my progress inhibited by the hand now holding the waistband of my pyjamas. “Huh?” I said, looking at the offending hand.

Tom pulled on the pyjamas and, not wanting to break the elastic in my favourite pair of night-trousers, I moved with them. Tom pulled himself upright in bed and pulled me down next to him. “I want a good-morning hug.” He said, quite matter-of-factly. I took a sharp breath in at such a blatant gesture. Then I realised that I was being stupid and mentally shrugged. Why not? I shrugged physically as well.

Tom took the shrug as a yes and immediately pulled me in, wrapping both arms tight around my back. My arms snaked around his back too and I heard and felt him let out a sigh into my left ear. “Morning.” He said. I noticed how the light hairs growing on his front brushed against my bare chest, almost tickling. I felt his tight stomach brush against my flat and how soft his skin was under my hands.

“Morning to you too.” I said and squeezed him as hard as I could for a second before untangling myself from him and going to the bathroom. 30 minutes later me and Tom were at breakfast, devouring bowls of cereal and not long after we had disappeared our separate ways to lessons.

* * *

Our first English Literature lesson with our proper teacher was good. Professor Xavier seemed impassioned by the book he’d set us to read but he always let people speak up if they disagreed. I had another training session but it wasn’t anything like as strenuous as the first, and it was done free of equipment in Professor Munroe’s office; lots of concentration exercises and advice on how to use my power a little more efficiently. It seemed I threw all of my current into one place and using just a trickle of my power happened either accidentally or not at all. Something to work on there. Lunch went as planned, me and Boyd and Tom were all at lunch on time, only Theresa was missing today. The afternoon’s double French lesson wasn’t so bad. At least it wasn’t more Spanish. I found myself looking out of the window more than once and thinking about going for another little run tonight to see if I could go any faster without my trainers catching on fire.

I returned to number 323 alone and started work. I was ploughing my way through some verb tables when Tom returned with his usual pile of books, which he dropped on his desk. He then proceeded to keel over, rather dramatically onto my bed.

“I’m going to get nervous exhaustion if they keep up with this amount of work.” He sighed. “I’m never going to finish that book by Friday.” He was talking about the big European History book.

“Yes you will.” I leaned back on my chair and grabbed it off the desk, throwing it quite deftly onto Tom’s diaphragm in one smooth motion. “Catch!” I said as he guffawed under the weight of the thick book. Ready for his return strike I brought my charge up and kept it pulsing just below the surface of my skin.

Tom, instead of throwing the book back or using a similar projectile, just lay on his bed and sighed. “Oh all right then. Glasses please.” He said, throwing his hand out to one side, ready for me to pass to him.

I reached behind me again and grabbed for his glasses. I picked them up and something stabbed me in the finger. I gave a small noise of disapproval and brought my hand round to my front and saw the cause of the light stab. There was a paperclip nearly burying itself in the skin of my little finger. There was also 3 pens, assorted other paperclips and a pencil sharpener glued to my hand in various places. I tried to shake them off but to no avail.

“Glasses?” Tom said.

“Er...”

“Whu?” He said as he shifted himself around so he could look at me. “Heh. Good trick.”

“Is it?” I replied, wondering to myself how useful having paperclips burying themselves in your hand could be whilst trying, and failing, to remove them.

“Drop your charge.” He said. I did so. The assorted items fell onto my desk, the glasses the only remaining item in or on my hand.

“That was weird. Catch.” I carefully threw Tom his glasses and put my hand back on the desk. I summoned up some more current to the surface again, letting it pulse around me evenly. Sure enough the stuff stuck itself to my hand again. “This is weird.” I concluded.

“Physics.” Tom said. “You’re being an electromagnet.” He’d put his glasses on by this point and looked and sounded like a bit of a nerd, so I flicked my wrist in his direction and drew my charge in, scattering paperclips and pens in Tom’s direction.

He threw an arm up over his face but the offending stationary stopped a few inches away from him, falling to the bed. “That isn’t a bad trick either.” I said, narrowing my eyes slightly. He took his glasses off again and twiddled them in his fingers.

Tom shrugged. “I realised I could stop your electrical energy and Mr. Summers’ eyebeam thingy; they both felt different but I could still stop them. Turns out energy is energy as far as my negativity is concerned. Kinetic energy’s an easy one at least.”

I chose a pencil off the desk and threw it at him, not fast, and he was ready for it. He didn’t even blink and it dropped out of the air 3 inches from his face. “Good trick.” I said. He smiled at me somewhat smarmily and re-donned his glasses, then stretched out on my bed and started to read from where he’d put his bookmark. I left him to it whilst I worked, conjugating verbs as I had never conjugated before.

What felt like an hour passed, so it was probably less. I fidgeted, Tom moved positions, I finished my verb tables and moved on to an essay plan, Tom moved around some more, attempting to get into a comfortable reading position (bearing in mind the book must’ve weighed at least half a kilo).

I was giving the plan a last read through when I felt Tom’s tingle on my arm. It pulsed in a little up-and-down motion, just an inch or so, up and down, up and down. I looked up but he was facing away from me, head rested on my end of the bed frame. Then I noticed his right hand propping up his book. His thumb was moving in time with his tingle on my arm, up and down just for an inch or so. I shuddered involuntarily and pushed a bit of charge out at the offending tingle.

Tom visibly jumped and turned to look at me, folding his thumb up in his fingers. “What’d you do that for?” He asked.

“Writing essay plans is hard when my right arm is being prodded.” I gave him a disapproving look.

“Oh. Oh right, yeah I...sorry. Heh.” He looked a bit uncomfortable. “I drifted off for a bit there, I think. Been reading the same page for the last 10 minutes,” he yawned hugely, “I think I’m too tired to take any of it in though.” He swung his legs sideways and made his way past behind me into the bathroom. I heard the sink start to fill.

Not wanting to be up and working with my light on if Tom was trying to get some sleep, I packed my stuff away, relocated any errant paperclips and got my PJs ready. I was just musing on when I could find some time to go running again, to try and beat my top speed, when Tom opened the bathroom door and said “All yours.”  
I performed my speedy pre-bedtime ritual and changed into my PJs. I opened the bathroom door just as Tom jumped into bed in his boxers. Stripy blue & white ones today. I tucked away my clothes and jumped into my own bed, snuggling into the cold covers and started moving around. Tom sniggered at me.

“What are you doing?”

“Trying to warm the covers up. I don’t like a cold bed.”

Tom sniggered again “And twitching like you’re being attacked with a cattle prod helps?”

I rolled my eyes and said “Well silly me forgot to pack a hot water bottle, so this’ll have to do.” I went back to my friction-inducing movements.

“I can think of a better way to warm a bed up.” Thoughts that I would previously have been unsure about began to bubble to the surface and I let them. I ceased all movement and looked at him with as much seriousness as I could muster.

“Surprise me.” I said.

He did. He slid straight out of bed and was kneeling next to mine in a flash. “Sit up.” He said. I pushed myself up and swivelled to face him, my duvet all-but falling off. He put his hands up in front of him and I felt his barrier push its way all around me. “Now let your charge build up.” He stated. I did so and he tightened the barrier. I waited for a few seconds and nothing happened. A few more and still nothing. I was about to say something when I felt heat cover me, head to toe. “An electric blanket.” He said, grinning like an ape.

“Very clever.” I said. I felt the tingle start to encroach upon my senses in several spots on my body. “Stop it.” I said, dangerously. “I’ve had enough of that for one day.” He stopped pretty instantaneously but didn’t move. I dropped my charge and he released his barrier. He put his hand by mine, on the edge of my bed, just far enough away to not feel anything.

“I’ve been wondering why it does that.” He said. “I mean why, when we get too close, do we both react like that?” I shrugged and shuffled sideways so that he could jump up on the bed beside me. He did so and I turned myself to face him, sticking my legs out. He did too, throwing his bare legs over mine. He put his hands in front of him, so I took one of mine and hovered it a few inches above his. I brought it down on top of his slowly so the tingling built until our hands connected and it cut out. “And why does it do that?”

“Maybe its because I’ve got all this loose charge around me?” I said. He nodded. “Well maybe there’s enough power around me to tickle that little bit of resistance you have all the time, and enough resistance around you to push against my standing charge.” Again I moved my hand closer and closer to the back of his hand until I could feel the tingling. “Like this.” I smiled. It was reassuring now, it felt good, like me and Tom were connecting. The tingling stopped abruptly but I hadn’t moved and neither had Tom.

”I let myself go a little.” He smirked. I thought I’d said enough play, but oh well.

I tried to remember my sessions with the Professor. I could easily throw all of my charge at one thing, but only using a little required concentration. Controlling where was easy enough. I concentrated and...it worked, surprisingly well, and Tom jumped a little as the tingle returned, stronger than before.

He smiled at me and the tingling began to subside so I stepped up my assault. I locked eyes with him and a battle ensued. He kept increasing the amount of negativity across the gap but I just kept increasing the voltage I was throwing at him.

Tired as I was, my ability to keep this up was rapidly depleting, Tom was still increasing his push and I was having trouble keeping up. I grabbed some charge out of the walls and redoubled my efforts.

“I noticed that, you big cheat.” He said, one eyebrow raised. Foiled.

Pulling his trump card, he flipped his hand over and took mine. This stopped the tingling caused by our battling powers but it left a different kind of tingling, hot warmth spreading up my arm from his touch. The part of me that had been rooting for something like this was jumping up and down celebrating, the other part, the part that had been receding the past week, was being stonily quiet. In fact...I didn’t even know where that part of me was any more. I’d been holding back because of that for what seemed like an age, now I could throw myself at this. I looked at Tom’s messy hair and down past his eyebrows, one of which was still half-raised, and into his dark brown, beautiful eyes.

I kept my eyes locked on his; right then I don’t think I could have looked away even if I’d wanted to. The spreading warmth from his touch had me almost trembling as I felt it filling me up, stretching down towards my toes and reaching up into my head. I felt so connected to him as the hot glow seeped into my brain, losing myself in those eyes. He’d completely disarmed me.

“Cheat.” I said quietly.

I blinked, slowly, savouring the moment I could see just his dim, sparkling outline in electric blue. I smiled at him and he smiled back, I realised it was the easiest thing I’d ever done: to smile at him. He made me smile. I still got the smallest twinge of weirdness from thinking that but I didn’t let it spoil my state of bliss. Over thinking things was why I hadn’t enjoyed this closeness 3 weeks ago and for once I wasn’t thinking; I just was.

Still with a smile plastered across his features he shuffled forwards so we were only inches apart, his legs still over mine, and he leaned on my forehead with his. I closed my eyes again and breathed. The smell of the room, my duvet, lingering toothpaste and overwhelmingly of Tom invaded my senses. I opened my eyes again and took stock.

I was sat on my bed, in the room I was sharing with one of the 5 people in the whole world that knew me to any degree. 3 weeks ago I’d only just met him; now I spend the best part of every day with him. I’ve been hiding from and avoiding what I’ve been wanting to feel, and I could feel the last bit of my armour sliding off. He was seeing parts of me that only Lex had ever seen. It felt like I was sharing more than just a room with the astoundingly beautiful person in front of me. And he wanted what I was sure, now, that I’d been wanting since I met him. It had to be now or never. 

I chose now.

My free hand reached up and wrapped round the back of his neck, pulling his lips gently towards me. No resistance was offered and as our eyes closed and our lips met, our tongues immediately began duelling in the space where our mouths joined. I felt his hand leave mine and slide up my chest to my shoulder, pulling me in tighter as his other hand reached round me and pulled me in, pushing on the small of my back. My other hand, now free, had moved up his arm of its own volition, feeling the smoothness of his skin and the warm strength of the muscle beneath, resting on his shoulder while our mouths got down to business. I have no idea how long we were kissing but when we stopped I was short of breath and panting.

Tom pulled back, still gripping onto me but our lips were inches apart again. “You o.k?” He asked. I nodded as best I could without dislodging his forehead. We were both breathing quite heavily and I looked down to see his chest heaving quite nicely. “You wanna go again?” He asked with a mischievous grin. I nodded again, more vigorously, earning me and Tom a mild forehead collision. I said “Ow.” He just sniggered and brought his lips to my forehead. I closed my eyes and sighed, my senses were starting to come more firmly back under my control and I almost blushed when I saw the tent in his loose boxers. I grinned instead and pulled back a little to look at him properly. There must’ve been a look in my eyes, because he pulled me in even tighter and went for my lips again.

It was like a supernova going off in my head. The slight numbness from the rush of adrenaline that had accompanied the first kiss had worn off. I could feel the roughness of his tongue, the softness of his lips, the sweet, almost toffee-like taste of his mouth. My hand swept up into his hair and even the silkiness of that gave me a buzz. We kissed for long enough to leave me and Tom short of breath, again. Resting our foreheads together I looked into his eyes, trying to avoid looking down at his boxers again for fear I would be unable to resist joining in. I could see a desire for more in his eyes, almost like fire. I didn’t want to spoil the perfection of this moment by going where I wasn’t ready yet and having to bail out.

“You o.k?” Tom asked again, his ability to read me like a book shining through.

“Can I sleep on this?” I asked.

“Of course, I didn’t mean to throw this at you all at once.” He wasn’t wrong, he’d really held back in those first couple of weeks; compared to this. We disentangled ourselves and he sat back on his heels and tried to disguise the protrusion in his pants. “It’s never got this far before...you know? I’ve never had a guy I like want to do anything with me.” He looked sheepish and jumped back onto his bed, sneaking back under his duvet. Meanwhile I suddenly had enough questions to turn the conversation into an edition of Mastermind.

I went for, “You’ve liked guys before?”

“Always have, since I was ten...maybe younger?” He paused, reading my expression. “I thought you might not have been the same way.” He half-smiled and settled down on his side under his covers, facing me.

“I’ve never needed to...or really wanted to. I’ve always had Lex.” I snuggled under my covers again, facing Tom.

“So you and her...?” Well that was a completely open question. I knew what he meant by it though and shook my head.

“Holding hands is about as far as it ever got, we’ve always been close, but neither of us ever took it any further.” I thought back to the quiet mischief we’d got up to in the 10 years we’d called each other ‘best friends’. She really did know me better than I knew myself. “I think she knew that I...er...well. You, you know...” I tried not to blush. I failed.

“It’s a big word. Surprisingly big for only being 3 letters long.” He said that with a compassionate smile.

I tried to grin back. “I can’t believe it never occurred to me before, it should be something you just know, surely.”

Tom shrugged under his duvet. “It only occurred to me because I found myself wanting more than friendship with the boys I played rugby with.”

“Didn’t play rugby.” I said, trying to stifle a yawn. It wasn’t exactly late but the workload was keeping me busy constantly, so my fatigue had time to build up and crash down on me at the end of the day.

He must’ve noticed the yawn. “Sleep on it. See you in the morning.”

“Night.”

* * *

A few hours later I was still wide awake. Tom had fallen almost instantly to sleep and I was still alternating between staring out the window and staring over at him. I eventually gave up and got out a reading book, trying to make my eyes tired enough to close. I soon had to give up because all I was getting was a headache from reading in the dark. I sat staring out of the window for a while longer.

I picked up my book again and turned my desk lamp on to avoid more headaches. Tom made a noise and blearily propped himself up on his elbows, rubbing at his eyes.

“Sorry Tom,” I whispered, “I couldn’t sleep.”

“Whu?” He grunted.

“Can’t sleep.” I whispered louder.

“C’mere.” He said, eyes still closed. Lifting up one of his arms and stretching it out towards me. “’Ere.” He said, still in grunting mode. I agreed so that he would go back to sleep, I knew I wasn’t going to get any rest but I shouldn’t deprive Tom. And besides, sleeping in the same bed would be like a prolonged hug.

“Alright, alright.” I was still whispering, somewhat impatiently. “Any possibility you could move over a bit?” I said as I climbed in under his outstretched arm.

He obliged and shuffled sideways towards the wall. Then he flopped down on top of me, arm across my stomach and nose practically in my ear. The feel of his breathing on my neck was surprisingly un-distracting. More soothing than anything else.

I lay still for a few minutes wondering if I’d be able to free myself without waking him up. As if reading my thoughts the arm across my stomach pulled up slightly so that the hand could grip me under the arm. I rolled my eyes in the dark and pondered whether or not escape was still an option. A second feat of psychic interpretation occurred seconds later, as I was working out how to remove Tom’s hand. His bare legs knotted themselves extremely efficiently around one of mine. I sighed and lay as still as possible, trying to think sleepy thoughts. I kept getting interrupted by thoughts regarding my sleeping friend. Thoughts which he would have liked. Thoughts which I was definitely starting to like more by the minute.

I lay there, breathing. In and out, in and out. Watching the moon, pretending I was flying out over the grounds again. I tuned back in to the room I was in, the sound of Tom’s breathing. And the sound of mine matching his. In and out, in and out. Funny how his arm across my stomach makes me feel so warm all over. In and out. And his legs twined around mine. In. And the way his gentle snoring made his nose rub up against my earlobe. Out. And the skin of his stomach that was on my right hand. In. And the feel of his breath on my neck, bringing me slowly to sleep. Out. I felt the last vestiges of consciousness slip away.

* * *

The alarm flicked on a minute after I woke up. I hadn’t opened my eyes until then but I could feel Tom’s reassuring weight on my arm and shoulder. I had briefly considered stealing all the electricity out of the alarm so it wouldn’t go off and I could enjoy Tom’s steady breathing across my collarbone until he woke up of his own accord. However Tom stirred almost immediately, stretching and wriggling, rubbing up against me. He stopped squirming and looked up at me from my shoulder. His eyes were twinkling and the grin slowly spreading across his face was akin to that of a cat that had just got the cream.

I reached my hand up and made sure his already bed-messed hair was truly a disorganised state to behold.

“Morning.” He half-said, half-yawned.

“Morning to you too.” I replied.

“Did you sleep at all?” He asked.

“Straight through ‘til morning, as soon as I got in with you.” I said.

“Good.” He squeezed me in a sideways hug, as if to emphasise the point. Something else pointed itself into my hip as he nuzzled in to my neck. I could feel myself reacting in a similar way and felt a blush start to creep up from my navel at the same time. “Do we have to get up?” He asked.

“Er...yes.” I said, in a slightly strangled voice.

Tom looked up and must’ve seen the blush creeping up my face, or possibly I had a look of mild terror in my eyes. Sleeping on it had helped, definitely helped, hell I wanted to kiss him again...but still too much too soon.

I half-rolled/half-fell out of Tom’s bed and grabbed some clothes before heading to the bathroom. I spent a little longer getting ready this morning, wanting to make sure I looked nice. I even stole a drop of Tom’s hair product in an attempt to pacify my fast-becoming-unruly hair. I let Tom have his turn in the bathroom and gathered my stuff for the day’s lessons. When Tom re-emerged with shiny hair and one of his tighter t-shirts on I realised he must have had the same idea as me about looking nice. It had definitely worked. I grinned at him and he grinned back.

“Ready to go?” I asked and stood up from my bed and went and opened the door.

“Almost. Need my morning hug first.”

I let go of the door handle and waddled back over to him, books still in hand. He threw his arms around me and I held on tightly in return, pressing my Spanish books into the small of his back. I breathed in the smell of him, revelled in the tightness of the muscles pushed up against me and the softness of the skin on my cheek. I felt the softness of his lips on my neck and almost shivered. I wanted to taste them again.

I leaned back slightly and rather clumsily brought our mouths into contact again. I hope I made up for lack of expertise with enthusiasm. Once Tom reacted to my tongue’s gentle assault on his lips he returned the feeling with interest, exploring every part of my mouth. Happy to stand there and be thoroughly kissed, I lost myself in the feeling of his tongue running over the inside of my lips. The loud cough from behind me nearly made me jump enough to drop my Spanish books all over the floor.

“I wondered what was keeping you...” said Boyd, with an edge to his voice. I felt a particularly hot blush rising up my stomach.

“Heh, er, sorry Boyd. We erm...we were just,” kissing each other’s faces off. “Er...just...erm...Sorry.”

“No problem. Your bedroom, your rules right?” He looked at his shoes a bit sheepishly and I wondered what he was thinking. “Lit first yeah?” We made eye contact and I saw sheer embarrassment overruling everything else in his golden eyes. I made a note to keep our door closed if we were involved in carnal activities in the future.

“Yup, History for you then.” Tom said. Boyd nodded. “Breakfast first though, which is lucky because I’m starving.”

Boyd set off down the corridor and me and Tom followed. I was just wondering whether they’d have my favourite cereals when I felt a tingle on my hand. I looked down and realised me and Tom were walking almost shoulder-to-shoulder in a corridor wide enough for 3 people. I smiled to myself and Tom slipped his hand around mine. I didn’t know how to react at first, but seconds later I had slipped my fingers comfortably through his and I was practically skipping down the wide wood-panelled corridor. Boyd looked over his shoulder at us and noticed our conjoined hands, he snorted a quiet laugh and slowed down to walk alongside me.

“You two sure about this?” He said, as we were just about to walk into the dining hall.

“Yes.” I said. Tom squeezed my hand and we walked into the dining hall grinning like the village idiots, Boyd walking alongside us looking a bit sheepish but still with his usual goofy smile on his face.

**Author's Note:**

> Posting one chapter a week to keep up with the editing.
> 
> Enjoy!


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